California Quarterly 47, no. 2, Summer 2021, edited by Maja Trochimczyk

Cover Art: Butterfly by Susan Dobay, 

48"x 36" acrylic on canvas (1993)

California State Poetry Society is pleased to announce the publication of the California Quarterly, vol. 47 no. 2, Summer 2021, edited by Maja Trochimczyk 

Editor’s Note

Mother – the same word in many languages, the first syllable of a baby, the easiest to pronounce: matr. मातृ (Sanskrit),মা Mā (Bangla), मां maan (Hindi),  ਮਾਂ Māṁ (Punjabi), அம்மா Am'mā (Tamil), mater (Latin), mutter (German), màthair (Scottish), móðir (Icelandic), moeder (Dutch), madre (Italian, Spanish), motina (Lithuanian), mère (French), мајко (Serbian), майка (Bulgarian), mãe (Portuguese), แม่, mæ̀ (Thai), mẹ (Viet-namese). It is мама in Russian, mama in Polish, Romanian, Swahili, and umama in Zulu. Most of these languages are Indo-European, but even the Chinese are not free of the omnipresent “mm” in 母親 Mǔqīn, or 媽媽 Māmā. We have one translation from Chinese in this issue, by Yun Wang, and another one, from Italian, by our indefatigable Margaret Saine. People who speak multiple languages gain insights into multiple cultures and are really blessed. They are able to recognize the essential human unity in the delightful diversity of nations and cultures. While editing the CQ, I like finding shared themes among submissions that bind poems with a common thread. This time, I found mothers, daughters, the joy and loss of childhood, but also solitude, pain, resilience, the Earth, Gaia – our Mother, teeming with life… and the wings of a butterfly, that came out of a humble, hungry caterpillar crawling in the dirt. A lovely butterfly graces our cover in a joyous image by Hungarian-American painter Susan Dobay (b. 1937). Back in 1956, she escaped from Hungary after the Soviet crackdown on the nation longing for its freedom. As long as communist repressions, violence and wars continue, refugees will stream out of lands of totalitarian oppression, searching for countries of peace and freedom. Are any such countries left on this planet? Is there anywhere to escape to? Our escape, as poets, has always been internal: the world of poetry and imagination. The world created by our words, our visions that have become a shared reality in the California Quarterly 47, No. 2. Enjoy!

Maja Trochimczyk, Editor

Masodik29 by Susan Dobay, Digital Integration Image

TABLE OF CONTENTS

California Quarterly, Volume 47, Number 2

• Mother Wearing Glasses and a Scarf  - Millicent Borges Accardi 7
• Frosted  -  Kelley Jean White 8
• Jar of Flowers  -  Daniel E. Blackston 9
• Supercalifraglistic -  Rachel Squires Bloom    10
• Childhood Predictions of Future  Success     -  Jackie Chou 11
• Lure -  Kristel Rietesel-Low  12
• Chandra’s Garden -  Gary Metheny 13
• Where the Roly-Polies Go  When It Rains  - Kristel Rietesel-Low  14
• House of Music  -     Eric Blanchard 15
• whoosh… -     Deborah P Kolodji 15
• The Shipping Forecast    - Harris Coverley 16
• Will   -    Chris Durand    17
• Like the Waves   - Purna Sujash  18
• Imposing its Rust on Everything   -   Millicent B. Accardi 19
• 送友人  - Li Bai 20
• Seeing Off a Friend    - Yun Wang, transl. 20
• Hometown  - Anna Maria Mickiewicz 21
• Speed of Pain -     Jeffrey L. Taylor 22
• inscriptions    -     Jamie Duncan 23
• mother’s recipe  - Susan Rogers 23
• Solitudine    - Paolo Staglianò 24
• family album   -   William Scott Galasso 24
• Solitude  -    Margaret Saine, transl.  25
• wanted everything  -     ayaz daryl nielsen 25
• Soliloquy    -     Gary Davis 26
• Breaker -     Harris Coverley 27
• Providence  -     Diana Donovan 28
• Plein Air, Oxford   -    Teresa Bullock 29
• somewhere still   -     Susan Rogers 29
• The Landscape of Love -   Nelson Joshua AnandhaRaj 30
• For the Lemon Tree Alone   - Madeleine S. Butcher 31
• a scent of roses    - Susan Rogers 31
• Tree Songs    -  Dana Stamps II 32
• The Changeling  - Maureen Ellen O’Leary 33
• Mason Bees   - Maja Trochimczyk 34
• Figures -    Kath Abela Wilson 35
• Low Tide -    Marilyn Robertson 36
• Survival Skills    - Sarah Platenius 36
• ways   -    Jamie Duncan 37
• At Temple Preparing to Pray    - Meghan Adler 38
• The Time Is Now -    Dirk James 39
• Ascension    -     Mary Elliott 40
• abruptly -    Gregory Cecil 40
• Mouth of the River Spitting out  the Sea  -  Eli Coyle     41
• Breakthrough -   Beth Pollak 42
• Gypsy Wind -   William Scott Galasso 43
• This Dance   -    Cathy Porter 44
• Sunset -   Gary Davis 45
• spring sunset -    Gregory Cecil 45
• Moonlight   - Livingston Rosmoor 46
• Mother’s Way    -    Kath Abela Wilson 46
• Nocturne 23    -    Jeff Graham 47
• The Runaway Moon  -  Dirk James 48
• Loveland   -    Sam Barbee 49
• Aristophanes    -  Gary Davis 50
• Susan is Dancing on the Moon    -    Kathi Stafford 51
• Grace Notes -    William Scott Galasso 52
• A Song-Distance Away    -    Nelson Joshua AnandhaRaj 53
• Song Offering, Because Love   -    Ambika Talwar 54
• Rain     -     MaryJo West 55
• To a Mother -     Susan Rogers 56
• The Light   - Dennis Ross 57
• Flight of Longing -   Ambika Talwar 58
• summer breeze   - Deborah P Kolodji 59
• The Intransigence of Stars    -   David Starkey 60
• patio chimes -   Deborah P Kolodji 60

Masodik39 by Susan Dobay, Digital Integration Image

NEWSBRIEFS 2021, NO. 2 (SUMMER 2021)

California State Poetry Society will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2022. We have not yet decided what format these commemorations should assume, but we are proud of the continuous publication of our journal, California Quarterly, known to 1999 as CQ: California State Poetry Journal and including work by 50-60 poets in each issue. That is a lot of poetry published in 47 volumes! Please note that some volumes were spread out over two years, hence the difference in numbers. Our society changed its name, as well: we started as California State Poetry Association and became a Society in 1985, when incorporating as a public-benefit California non-profit.  If you would like to contribute to the celebrations, send your ideas to me at maja@moonrisepress.com. So far, we have discussed such options as commemorating our past presidents in the successive CQ issues, publishing a brief history of CSPS with notes from past Board members, indexing all 47 volumes of the journal, publishing interviews with key contributors to the CSPS on our blog, and more.

 

We would like to remind our readers that the CSPS Annual Contest deadline is July 31, 2021. Georgia Jones-Davis graciously agreed to serve as the Contest Judge. For more information about her visit our blog: https://www.californiastatepoetrysociety.com/2021/05/meet-georgia-jones-davis-csps-annual.html.

You may submit work by mail or online, http://www.californiastatepoetrysociety.org. We recently changed contest rules, lowering submission reading fees for members of the NFSPS. These poets will pay fees at the level of those for CSPS members. The Annual Contest is open to all poets, regardless of their CSPS membership. While submitting poems to the CQ via Submittable or in other ways, do not forget to include your name, city, state, country and email address on all pages with your poems. We need this information! Also, please, consider sending submissions to Monthly Contests, managed by Alice Pero, our Monthly Contest Judge. 

California Quarterly Editors. We are pleased to announce that William Scott Galasso agreed to join the CQ Editorial Board, and will start editing from Vol. 47, No. 4. Scott is an accomplished poet with a great love for haiku and related genres. He published 16 books and his work appeared in many journals. We are still looking for more Editors to work with us on the CQ Editorial Board. If interested, send your bio to the President, maja@moonrisepress.com.

Membership Dues. Please note that individual dues for 2021 have been increased to $40. Other dues are listed on the following pages. CSPS membership includes four issues of the CQ, access to contests with lower fees, and access to the National Federation of State Poetry Society events and contests – their newsletter, Strophes, is found on the NFSPS website, http://www.nfsps.com/Strophes.html.

The CQ vol. 47 no. 1, edited by Bory Thach, who joined the Editorial Board in 2020, was well received. Terry Ehret commented: “Wow! The poems in this issue are quite stunning! I was especially pleased to see one by Amy Moore. She'd never published her poems anywhere until last fall's issue that I edited. I'm glad she's getting her work out into the world, and glad CQ could help move her forward in her publishing career. Thank you for the excellent work the two of you demonstrate here!” 

The current issue of the CQ vol. 47 no. 2 features a painting by Susan Dobay on the cover. Born in Hungary, she studied in Hungary and the U.S., worked as a commercial designer, and moved on into the fine arts world, while being active  in her native Hungary and the U.S. Her paintings and digital integration images are in many collections in Hungary, Canada, the U.K., Switzerland, and the U.S. She explains her approach to creativity as follows: “I try to find the balance between mind and spirit. My goal is to involve viewers in a creative game where both the mind and the heart are stimulated.”

Members News: Margaret Saine has held zoom conferences on poetry in Chennai and Mumbai. Her book of French poems, Rêveuses Rivières, is being published in Montreal, Canada, and her Spanish book, Respirando bajo el agua, by Cuadernos del Laberinto in Madrid. Three poems by Ambika Talwar are selected for publication in a new collection titled Timeless Inspirations. Three poems of mine are in an anthology of Polish memorial poems, Do Zobaczenia 2 (London). I manage Zoom readings for Village Poets; we recently featured Maura Harvey, Terry Ehret & Nancy Covers Dougherty.

Maja Trochimczyk, CSPS President

Searching by Susan Dobay, acrylic on canvas. 

More information: SusanDobay.om