California Quarterly 45 No. 4, Winter 2019, Edited by Pearl Karrer

 

California Quarterly, Vol. 45, No. 4, Winter 2019

EDITOR'S NOTE

This issue begins on a sad note. Wanting to start with “Leaves of Poems,” I learned the poet died a few days after I received his permission. West’s poem introduces the cycle of life with a leafless/scrub oak waiting for spring and a poet with eight decades...full of poems. His voice anchors this issue with a walk through woods...the anticipation of hope.

Landscapes move from desert to high mountains. Survival is a common thread. In “Crossings,” Some risk everything to cross this sand. To cross the Pyrenees, The first thing we pack is fear, “The Backpack for the Pilgrimage.” Concern for a son prompts, Fifteen is/a surfeit of song/too often silenced...“Canary. Coalmine.” Beech trees find a voice in “Reply to Adrienne,” where roots inter-twine...send extra nutrients/to a tree with weakness or disease.

Confronting death, a couple imagine a lasting embrace—that sure lover//finally taking your breath away, “Evanesce.” Seduction and death fill the sumptuous setting of “Judith and Holofernes;” She had thought he would be ugly...Love resonates in “Design,” where With you every page has turned.

Another walk invites us to carry our stories into the woods...spilling them beneath the tall canopy, “Walking Among Redwoods,” while “Let It Be” advises, Dive into the unknown and let/it be in the country of yourself.

Since winter holds the promise of a coming spring, “Our Silence is in Listening” leads us there: an owl speaks with its silent wings/a language woven from/passing cloud, falling stars,/the Japanese maple in moonlight.

My continued thanks to all who submitted and shared their poetry.

Pearl Karrer                                               

Palo Alto, California 

 

Snow and Palm Trees. Photo: Maja Trochimczyk

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

 

Leaves of Poems  -   Thomas A. West, Jr.   -   7
Hiking Mogollon Rim    -  Jedediah Smith  -  8
Reply to Adrienne  - Allegra Jostad Silberstein  -  9
Giving Way    -    Anne-Marie Cadwallader   - 10
Penumbra    -   James Deahl   - 11
Kaleidoscope   -  Valerie M. Griggs    -   12
Windows    -    Marilyn Robertson   -  12
Brittle as Silica  -   Yixuan Shi    -  13
Desert Dance at Joshus Tree -  Dana Robbins  -  14
Crossings  -    Bonnie Wai-Lee Kwong   -   15
The Lucky Ones -   Lucille Lang Day  -  16
Ranas   -  Carla Pravisani     -    17
Frogs   -  Margaret Saine (Tr.)   -   17
The Backpack for the Pilgrimage   -   Martina Nicholson   -   18
Crossing Over   -    Mike Dillon  -  19
Canary. Coalmine.   -  Susan Schaefer Bernardo  - 20
Coming of Age   -   Charles Joseph Albert   -    22
Be Still   -   Jacqueline Henry   -  23
Spin Cycle    -    Susan Schaefer Bernardo   -  24
Dance from Another Continent   -   Bonnie Wai-Lee Kwong - 26
Let It Be   -    Allegra Jostad Silberstein -   26
On Losing a Friend to Camouflage  -  Stephanie Pressman  -   27
Love in Autumn  - Laurie Lessen Reiche  - 28
Innisfree  - Marilyn Robertson  -  29
Evanesce   -   Richard Brostoff   -  30
The New Life   -  Steven Gizitsky  -  32
Heat Wave    -    Johanna Ely     -  33
Downward from the Flames -Lucille Lang Day- 34
Where Is Love   -  Barbara Tramonte   -     35
Judith and Holofernes  - Stephanie Pressman -  36
Design   - Valerie M. Griggs  -   38
Intimate Conversation  -  Gary Metheny  -  39
Paint Job  -  Kevin J. McDaniel   -  40
Cerebral Roulette   -   Charles Joseph Albert    -  41 
Her Voice Is a Wing  -  Steven Gizitsky  -    42
Otoño en el pensamiento  - Carla Pravisani   -   43
Autumn in my Thoughts- Margaret Saine (Tr.) - 43
Drake’s Estero   -   Jeffrey L. Taylor  -   44
View from Tam -    Jeffrey L. Taylor   -   44
A Lamp on a Polished Table  -  Katharyn Howd Machan - 45
Self Portrait 1907:…  -    Jeanne Wagner   - 46
White Camellias in November - Jerome Gagnon - 47
Wonder   -  William Synder, Jr.  -   48
Equinox    -    James Deahl     -  49
On Crossing an Alpine Snowfield -  Scott Honeycutt   - 50
When My Neighbor Says the Fence -  Jeanne Wagner - 51
Walking among Redwoods  -   Jerome Gagnon -  52
Our Silence Is in Listening   -  Johanna Ely   -  53
Snowdrop     -   DJ Tyrer  -  53

The 33rd Annual Poetry Contest     -   54
Brief Judge’s Bio (Lisa Rosenberg)  -   54
Judge’s Comments  -   55
Stone, She  -    R. J. Keeler   -    56
Skull of Moon, Fist of Stars  - Claire Scott  -  57
For the Young Man Unimpressed - Kathleen McClung - 58

Cover Art: Ice Cutting                           Pearl Karrer

                                                 ABOUT THE EDITOR 

PEARL KARRER - EDITORIAL CHAIR

After a background/career in microbiology and music, augmented with creative writing and two-dimensional art, Pearl Karrer teaches piano, exhibits art in juried shows and writes poetry. Her poems appear in many journals such as Slant, Visions-International and The Comstock Review. They are featured in many anthologies, most recently the coffee table book, Room to Breathe, The Wild Heart of the San Francisco Peninsula and No, Achilles. Her collections include Weathering, The Thorn Fence and Balanced Between Water and Sky. Joining the editorial board of the CSPS in 2002, Pearl has edited a number of issues of the CQ, as well as serving as a proof reader and maintaining the cover art library for the CQ. As of 2013, Pearl has served with John Harrell as the Managing Editor of the CQ. Most recently, she is the editor of the second issue of the CQ in 2015, Vol. 41, No. 2.