EDITOR’S NOTE
This issue reflects how poets react to changes brought about by the global pandemic.
The California Quarterly is also experiencing changes. Pearl Karrer has retired after 19 years of service, including Membership Chair, Editorial Chair & Managing Editor. In 2019 she set up our Submittable website for submissions and then edited CQ 45:4, her final issue, which presaged her retirement with the themes of winter (an ending) and spring (a beginning). We wish her well as she finds more time for music, gardening and writing. She leaves many friends and fellow poets who will miss her cheerful support and enthusiasm for poetry.
Stephanie Pressman, who volunteered her InDesign formatting skills to CQ, is also stepping down this spring and will be missed.
I had difficulty choosing poems this round. Editor's block? Maura's block? Weltschmerz? Maybe this challenge is due to the plethora of fine pieces sent this spring. Many poems talk about the pandemic. In “Quarantine” Nicola Waldron personalizes the global crisis in the person of her own mother in England., while Torrey Ogilvie honestly shares her Brooklyn reality in “Isolating Guilt.” Jane Ann Flint writes of timelessness as we wait for what is happening/to happen. The themes of time, love, and family occur in many pieces and humor happily serves as a balm for the poets.
In this brave new world, poetry will grow stronger and more relevant. I am personally strengthened by working with you, the poets and the friends of the California State Poetry Society. May this volume serve you well as you find your path during the summer of 2020. I quote here the words of Spanish poet, Antonio Machado:
Caminante, no hay camino, Traveler, there is no road,
se hace camino al andar. you make your own path as you walk.
I wish you a smooth path forward.
Maura Harvey
San Rafael, California
TABLE OF CONTENTS
California Quarterly, Volume 46, Number 2
Sailing - Mark Belair 7
fragile is the rose - Peter S. Hein 7
Carpe, Fool - David Denny 8
Zarathustra Abecedarius - Fred Yannantuono 9
Nuggets from Namibia - Elizabeth Yahn Williams 9
Quarantine - Nicola Waldron 10
Five-Year Old - Roy Mash 10
The Williams Triad - Judith Saunders 11
Arbol a Uno Mirlo en … - Marisa Martínez Pérsico 12
A Tree for a Blackbird in … - Jeanie R.C. Toscano, tr. 13
Look, Stop and Listen - Milton P. Ehrlich 14
Nature’s Retreat - Tomas Gayton 15
Panic Pandemic - Tomas Gayton 15
Free - Esther L. Palmer 16
New Place - Bibhu, Pabhi 17
Obsession’s Motivated Solution - Jerry Sexton 18
Jose Feliciano in Concert - Edwin Romond 19
When the Last Piece of Clothing - Roy Mash 19
Flamingo Dawn - Mary Wilix 20
That Awkward Journey… - Evalyn Lee 21
blowing bubbles... - Deborah P. Kolodji 21
The Pier in Santiago Bay - Joseph D. Milosch 22
Find Me - a.Lynn Brown 23
Sparrow, Reversed - Cathryn Hankla 24
Freud’s Nudes - Ben Nice 24
Not Worth Reading - Luis Gallo 25
The Carpenter Bee - Joel Savishinsky 26
Set at Oman - Elizabeth Yahn Williams 27
Cold as ICE - Anna Nicolas 28
Cowabunga! The Jam Jar is… - Kit Kennedy 29
Hoarder’s Excuse - Dana Stamps II 30
Cross-polination - Brian Kirven 31
Assessment - David C. Rice 32
It’s News to Me - Elizabeth Yahn Williams 33
Cities of this world… - ayaz daryl nielsen 33
Night Life - Brian Kirven 34
Vida Nocturna - Brian Kirven, tr. 35
Roxy’s Gift - Pearl Karrer 36
Like a Rush of Blackbirds - Pearl Karrer 36
Reading the Romantics - Roy Mash 37
we imagined we were men… - Robert Paul Cesaretti 38
Sage Advice - Jeffrey L. Taylor 38
Ice Walking - Jeeni Criscenzo 39
Suicidal Eagles - Kelly Talbot 40
Awake - Jane Ann Flint 41
Kandi - Marganne Glasser 42
partisan politics… - Deborah P Kolodji 42
A Long Way Away - Christopher Kuhl 43
Benumbed - Douglas Nordfors 44
That Day in Hades - Claire Scott 45
Strange Antlers - Richard Jarrette 46
Clair de lune - Doreen Stock 48
Message Threads - Maura Harvey 49
Yeats and Lost Love - Mai-Lon Gittelsohn 50
Sequester - Jane Ann Flint 51
Keeping in Touch - Mo Lynn Stoycoff 52
after our house fire - ayaz daryl nielsen 52
Isolating Guilt - Terrie Ogilvie 53
Measure Twice, Cut Once- Todd Capeland 53
Warmth - Liz Dossa 54
Coyote Song - A.Downing-Yaconelli 55
Renewal - Lea Aschkenas 56
From A Window - Nicola Waldron 57
Summer Garden Ball - Jeeni Criscenzo 57
Extinctions - Joanne Sharp 58
spring rain - ayaz daryl nielsen 58
MAURA HARVEY, EDITOR
Maura Harvey is a bilingual poet, author and artist who has lived in California since 1950. She holds a Ph.D. in Latin American Literature from UC Irvine. Her poetry in both Spanish and English has appeared widely. Dr. Harvey is a founder of Taller del mar, a monthly poetry workshop with members from Tijuana and San Diego. She feels very proud to have published a poetry anthology in Barinas, Venezuela, in 1993 and to have been able to meet Venezuelan and Cuban poets personally while travelling in those countries. She has exhibited her art in many venues in California and had a show in Instanbul, Turkey, in 2006. She joined the editorial board of the California Quarterly in 1999, editing many issues and serving for years also as Secretary of the CSPS and as the CSPS Annual Contest Chair.
COVER ART: “This Wave” by Kathryn de Laszlo
March 2020, Point Reyes, California, Oil Pastel on Paper
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