California Coast by Maja Trochimczyk
THE 33RD ANNUAL POETRY CONTEST
OF THE CALIFORNIA STATE POETRY SOCIETY
The winners and prize winning poems from the 33rd Annual Poetry Contest, selected by Lisa Rosenberg are published in the California Quarterly 45:4, edited by Pearl Karrer.
AWARDS
1st Place: “Stone, She” by R. J. Keeler, Vashon, WA
2nd Place: “Skull of Moon, Fist of Stars” by Claire Scott, Oakland, CA
3rd Place: “For the Young Man Unimpressed with the Sky” by Kathleen McClung, San Francisco, CA
Honorable Mentions
“A Lamp on the Polished Table” by Katharyn Howd Machan, Ithaca, NY
“Mighty Eucalypti” by Selma Calnan, Anaconda, MT
“Fire for Fire” by Ed McManis, Larkspur, CA
“Too Much of Nothing” by Neal Zirn, Denver, CO
“Inside the Chicken Shed” by David Anderson, Lincoln, CA
ABOUT THE CONTEST JUDGE, LISA ROSENBERG
Poet and recovering engineer Lisa Rosenberg served as this year’s judge. She holds degrees in physics and creative writing, and worked for many years in the space program. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University, she served as the 2017-2018 Poet Laureate of San Mateo County, California. Her debut collection, A Different Physics, received the 2017 Red Mountain Poetry Prize. Lisa speaks, consults, and instructs, bringing polymathic tools to industry, research, and education. She was recently awarded a 2020 Djerassi Residency for Scientist and Artists.
California Fields by Maja Trochimczyk
JUDGE’S COMMENTS - BY LISA ROSENBERG
Judging is much like the process of writing: guided by our current understanding of the art, we encounter challenges to our habits and preferences. I am humbled by lessons revealed in this body of work: poems that carry wisdom, curiosity, courage, and inventiveness.
First Place: “Stone, She” Rhythmic, lyric, and intriguing, this brief poem builds a multi-faceted mood: reflective, declarative, and unresolved. A single word, the rhetorical “well” in line 3, provides a tonal anchor to keep what follows within the realm of the self-reflective and confessional. Spare stanzas move with agility through sensory images and existential suggestions, creating a diffuse portrait of the spoken-of and the speaker’s relationship to her. Concrete details hold their weight, so that the grammatical oddities add to our enjoyment and curiosity. Navigated with conviction in tone, and satisfying use of repeated structures.
Second Place: “Skull of Moon, Fist of Stars” This poem shows how the physical workings of poetry can sustain and deliver complex themes with immediacy. The poet uses sound patterns and figurative devices that engage us without pause: wordplay, “this was the known I knew”; repetition in phrasing, symbols, and structure; rhythmic power, “sun-baked snake”; measured assonance and alliteration; and unexpected (very wellplaced) metaphor. The way in which these are woven brings emotional urgency into the reader’s experience. The near-ultimate lines, which the title foreshadows, exemplify one of the metaphorical shifts. The speaker backs an “ancient Studebaker” down a driveway, straight into a description of self “wearing the shape of wind / the steady of stars.”
Third Place: “For the Young Man Unimpressed with the Sky” The sharp contrast between the villanelle form, popular in the 19th century, and this modern-day setting heightens the contrast between teen and adult perceptions in the social exchange recounted. Philosophical musings and blasé observations weave through and past each other in an anecdotal mode, held together by the form (employed with slight variations). The strict requirements of the villanelle feel countered, even confronted, by the speaker’s diction. The form also supports casting the entire encounter within the brief, repeated time frame of a few moments.
Hermosa Beach by Maja Trochimczyk
THE 2019 ANNUAL CONTEST WINNING POEM
STONE, SHE
Crush, she—
Crushed by blossoms;
As many as, well,
Since flowers appeared.
Fuse, she—
Fused since time,
Long past believing
And given to me.
Grind, she—
Ground like wheat,
By glaciers, forests,
As many as grain.
Press, she—
Pressed by breezes,
Soft, cold,
As married as air. Stone, she.
~ R. J. Keeler
Vashon, Washington
Star of Stones by Maja Trochimczyk
THE 2019 ANNUAL CONTEST - SECOND PRIZE WINNING POEM
SKULL OF MOON, FIST OF STARS
I knew if I stayed I would die
you can’t live nourished on nothing
my mother: made of malice + bitter marrow
silent as a sun-baked snake
one eye glistening
my mother: manic + mercurial
knife flailing
scotch flowing
shredded wheat for supper
my mother: a vulture winging + waiting
to pick my bones clean
this was the known I knew
remnants + rinds
of an almost life
tethered to a mother who one day
would care, if only I—
if only—
I knew if I stayed I would die
for years I chose death
living at the end of a rope
a boot heel on my face
until I finally got it
—my rope
—my boot
& backed down the driveway
in my ancient Studebaker
wearing the shape of wind
the steady of stars
the solace of a crescent moon
~ Claire Scott
Oakland, California
Path of Light by Maja Trochimczyk
2019 ANNUAL POETRY CONTEST - THIRD PRIZE WINNER
FOR THE YOUNG MAN UNIMPRESSED WITH THE SKY
“It’s just the moon,” he shrugs, blasé, this teen.
His mother, stirred, like me, does not agree.
We strangers gaze, transfixed. The light turns green
as we step off the curb and walk between
these yellow lines. Familiar mystery:
it’s just the moon, of course, but full. We’ve seen
its sliver in the sky, known its routine
each month—a moving toward immensity.
We strangers gaze, in awe. The light turns green.
Sixth Avenue seems safe to cross—if screens
are off in every car. No guarantee.
It’s just the moon, just solstice. No machine
that waits for us to cross can ever mean
what full moon in a winter sky does: constancy.
We strangers gaze, grateful for light, for green,
for seasons, cycles, wheels that spin unseen
far longer than our brief mortality.
It’s just the moon. You’re right. You’re seventeen.
We strangers praise it, though. The light turns green.
~ Kathleen McClung
San Francisco, California
Bronze and Azure by Maja Trochimczyk
MONTHLY POETRY CONTESTS
CSPS Vice President for Communications, Richard Modiano, selected the following poems as winning the Monthly Poetry Contests in August, September and October 2019. Congratulations to all the winners!
August:
1st place: "Picturesque Moment" Jane Stuart, Greenup KY
2nd place: "After the Storm" Mary Jo West, San Clements CA
3rd place: Two-Year-Old-Bronco Von S. Bourland, Happy TX
September:
1st place: "Victory Dance 1945" Nick Sweet, Shepard TX
2nd place: "Perseverance" Mary Jo West, San Clemente CA
3rd place: "Alifair" Jerry Douglas Smith,San Luis Obispo CA
October:
1st place: "War Memorial" Von S. Burland.Happy TX
2nd place: "Calm after the Storms" Von S. Bourland, Happy TX
3rd place: "The Poet Elopes With the Philosopher's Daughter Louis Aboulafia, Stockston CA
Victory Dance, 1945
On that night in San Diego
When he danced with Betty Grable
And with all his G. I. buddies
Was invited to her table
At first his foxtrot faltered
On legs a bit unstable
By chorus he regained it
They floated smooth and able
He danced as if before the war
Before the occupation
Before the barefoot orphans
Waded through the devastation
Before he followed orders
That nullified sensation
And left him drained and broken
No glimpse of restoration
While holding Betty closely
He whispered, so he claims,
"You just have to call me if
You split with Harry James,"
He never really said it
Wasn ' t glib with dames
But this amended memory
Helped erase the flames
Of many burning villages
Ragged refugees
Vacant stares of conquered men
Sobbing mothers' pleas
But he knew while guiding Betty
With elegance and ease
Some distant day he'd care again
His haunted heart appeased
The First Prize Winning Poems receive a small cash prize and the poem is posted on this blog, as well as announced on our website.
Not so Liquid, Not so Amber by Maja Trochimczyk
AUGUST THEME: Humor, Satire, Joy of Life
AUGUST WINNER: JANE STUART
Picturesque Moment
Golden fireflies
blinking lanters
full of starlight
Misty shadows
moonlit rivers a
flying owl
and mountains rising in
a turning globe
Starry silence
then the moon
drops lower
Gold and Blue by Maja Trochimczyk
SEPTEMBER THEME: OPEN
SEPTEMBER WINNER: NICK SWEET
Victory Dance, 1945
On that night in San Diego
When he danced with Betty Grable
And with all his G. I. buddies
Was invited to her table
At first his foxtrot faltered
On legs a bit unstable
By chorus he regained it
They floated smooth and able
He danced as if before the war
Before the occupation
Before the barefoot orphans
Waded through the devastation
Before he followed orders
That nullified sensation
And left him drained and broken
No glimpse of restoration
While holding Betty closely
He whispered, so he claims,
"You just have to call me if
You split with Harry James,"
He never really said it
Wasn ' t glib with dames
But this amended memory
Helped erase the flames
Of many burning villages
Ragged refugees
Vacant stares of conquered men
Sobbing mothers' pleas
But he knew while guiding Betty
With elegance and ease
Some distant day he'd care again
His haunted heart appeased
Garden Sunset by Maja Trochimczyk
OCTOBER THEME: War & Peace, Activism & Politics
OCTOBER WINNER: VON S. BOURLAND
War Memorial
Traffic whizzed by as we strolled around
the War Memorial outside the Visitor's Center
in Trinidad, Colorado.
WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War
and more recent conflicts: Iraq and Afghanistan
marble structures thrusting upward
paying homage to scripted names.
As I stood in front of the Vietnam monolith
a chill embraced me at the sight:
a miniature version of The Wall - USA featuring a father
holding his daughter - pointing to names on the list.
In awe of the miniaturization depicting so many men
and women fallen on the battlefields
the skill of the artist remained dominant.
Later, I thought of those tiny scrolled names
and how minimal our tribute must have appeared
as the survivors returned home - how blame seemed placed
on those who fulfilled what they saw as duty.
Shame overwhelmed beauty.
War Memorial
Traffic whizzed by as we strolled around
the War Memorial outside the Visitor's Center
in Trinidad, Colorado.
WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War
and more recent conflicts: Iraq and Afghanistan
marble structures thrusting upward
paying homage to scripted names.
As I stood in front of the Vietnam monolith
a chill embraced me at the sight:
a miniature version of The Wall - USA featuring a father
holding his daughter - pointing to names on the list.
In awe of the miniaturization depicting so many men
and women fallen on the battlefields
the skill of the artist remained dominant.
Later, I thought of those tiny scrolled names
and how minimal our tribute must have appeared
as the survivors returned home - how blame seemed placed
on those who fulfilled what they saw as duty.
Shame overwhelmed beauty.
Ginkgo and Sycamore by Maja Trochimczyk
ABOUT RICHARD MODIANO
VICE PRESIDENT - COMMUNICATIONS - RICHARD MODIANO
Elected Executive Director of Beyond Baroque in 2010, Modiano is a writer, curator, and editor. In 2007 he produced Beyond Baroque’s “On the Road” 50th Anniversary Production and in 2009 he produced the marathon reading and panel discussion of “William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch at 50.” He was on Board of Directors for Valley Contemporary Poets from 1997-2005 and served as Board President in 2004-2005. His poems have been published in Blue Satellite, Big Scream, Maintenant, Mas Tequila Review, Malpais Review, the Los Angeles Cultural Weekly, and he is a contributor to The Bukowski Anthology. Modiano has been elected unanimously by e-mail vote in May 2019 and we are very pleased to gain his expertise and experience to help CSPS spread its wings. He will also serve as the Chair of Monthly Poetry Contests. He is Director Emeritus of Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center in Venice, CA.
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