Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Contents of the California Quarterly, Vol. 48, No. 1, Spring 2022, edited by Maja Trochimczyk


California Quarterly vol. 48, no. 1, Spring 2022, ed. Maja Trochimczyk
Cover image: "Surrender" by Diane Lee Moomey, 2014, watercolor on paper, 18"x24"

EDITOR’S NOTE

river of gold

flows through charcoal valley –

Water Tiger Year

       The year 2022 is supposed to be of turmoil, transformation, trauma – the tiger showing its stripes, as it were. At least it is a “Water Tiger” so its fierce energy is cooled off with waves of tranquility. I live near the coast of the Pacific and love watching the gentle waves relentlessly caressing the sand. Their gentleness is an illusion – an enormous power is hidden within the mass of water that is all a part of one united ocean encircling our globe. Jeff Graham celebrates the sea while reflecting on what it means “to live in a sea of light” in his poem, “The sea only gives.” Like the oceans, we are all united, even if we do not know it, and spiral into loneliness and despair.      

       Submissions to this issue of the California Quarterly included many traumatic or post-traumatic experiences captured in words.       Old circus horses go “round and round” under the whip of merciless Ring Master (Lynn White); ghost towns disappear (Stephen Benz), grief becomes a black hole “from which nothing escapes…not one particle of hope” (Lynn Domina). We miss those who left us (Terry Olivi). But then we look up and see that “anchoring night sky / kite holds moon” (Jeffrey L. Taylor). Then, we start to think “of what is fleeting / of what touches the heart / and makes it vibrate” (Paolo Staglianò). Healing begins. We are so delighted as we realize that “Earth was made for breathing” that we too may look up and “become/ blue/ and cloudless” (Frederick Livingston). 

       We notice the living things that grow, sprout, and flourish. It is Spring, after all. Suddenly, as snow melts, we want to “wake crocuses, make snowdrops unfurl” (Holly Day). We plant seeds in the garden waiting for “the tiniest sprouts opening with the light” (Charlene Langfur). We admire “every inch of matter / a filament of light / gasping to the sun” (Brittany Nohra). Poets also celebrate their ancestors, both poetic (Horace, Wallace Stevens) and actual, elders reminding youth that “The Gift Inherited / That is our Life” (Sean McGee Brown of the Bishop Paiute/Shoshone Tribe). I am truly grateful for the riches of poetic expression I encountered while seeking these gems to share. 

~ Maja Trochimczyk, CSPS President


Moon Kites in Blue, by Diane Lee Moomey, Watercolor


TABLE OF CONTENTS

California Quarterly, Vol 48, Number 1, Spring 2022

Reception — Charles Grosel  7

The Mime — Jane Stuart 7

Stationary Hobo  Dana Stamps II 8

anchoring night sky  Jeffrey L. Taylor 8

Christmas Tree Aftermath  —  Richard Schiffman 9

Round and Round   Lynn White 10

Early  Holly Day   11

Letter to Taylor Swift  A. Dearborn Goldsmith 12

anachronistic  Scott Moss 12

Mountain March  Bertha Rogers 13

On the Bridge Across the Stream —  Harris Coverley              13

Tahquitz Peak Lookout 1999 —  Terry Wilhelm 14

Ghost Towns Out West —  Stephen Benz  16

Ruins  Keith Gorman 17

[alla mia madre morta:]   Terry Olivi 18

[To My Dead Mother:] —  Margaret Saine, tr. 19

Will tomorrow be another day?  Charlie Brice 20

Shavasana  Ida Marie Beck 21

loud waterfall rush Connie Tettenborn  21

Thirty White Horses  Angie Nam 22

Wyvern —  Holly Day 23

the nearness —   Gregory Cecil 23

Mixed Media: Grief  Lynn Domina 24

Lessons of the Pomegranate  Tammy C. Greenwood 25

Sea Shanties Angelika Quirk 26

Bullfrog Pond —   Pamela Stone Singer 27

King Tide  Ron Renspie 28

Waterfall Symphony   Dana Stamps II 29

The Sea Only Gives —  Jeff Graham 30

Crossing the Causeway   Julia Park Tracey 31

Unsolid State Connie Tettenborn  31

Daphne —    Brittany Nohra 32

Anemophilous  Holly Day 33

Looking Up at the Sky  John McKernan     33

Unbridled  Tammy C. Greenwood 34

We All Lie  Annie Schumacher 34

Purpose   Cathy Porter 35

Centering  Charlene Langfur  36

Curriculum Vitae  Margaret Saine 37

Puzzle      Claire Scott 38

Loneliness —  Edward Curtis 38

Rectius Vives, Licini, Neque Altum     Andrew Miller 39

Green Grass  Alice Pero 40

From Minium Chronicles  Maja Trochimczyk 41

[Ciò che fugge]    Paolo Staglianò 42

[What Is Fleeting]  Margaret Saine, tr. 43

Simple Things  Charlene Langfur 44

Santa Cruz  Annie Schumacher 45

Anna Livia  Jonathan Cannon 46

When Two is Greater than Home  Ida Marie Beck 47

Still Blue  Loise Moisess 48

Unfurling Seasons  Hedy Habra 49

Immigrant  Angie Nam 50

Varanasi —   Laine Derr 50

My Prayers —  Carlo diOrio 51

Beyond Silence  —  Jeffrey L. Taylor  51

Assopirmi ora — Rita Stanzione 52

getting drowsy now —   Margaret Saine, tr. 52

The Phoenix Oliver Egger  53

Generational Waves  Sean McGee Brown 54

Practical Advice for a Frazzled Passer-by  Maja Trochimczyk 56

Existence by Origin by Existence   —  Jeff Graham 57

Light  —   Frederick Livingston  58

Seeker  Beverly M. Collins 59

Contributors in Alphabetical Order 60

CSPS Contest Opportunities 61

CSPS Newsbriefs 2022, No. 1 62

Publishing Opportunities with CSPS 65

2022 CSPS Donors, Patrons, and Membership 66

CSPS Membership Form 68

          

Summer Surf, Watercolor by Diane Lee Moomey

NEWSBRIEFS 2022, No.1,  Spring 2021

 We are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the California State Poetry Society in 2022. While the date of founding the organization falls into 2021, the first volume of the California Quarterly was published in 1972. We are now in Volume 48 because in the past some volumes were published over the course of two years. Just to make things more confusing, I guess. Over these five decades, the CSPS and CQ thrived thanks to the dedicated work of many volunteers who  have considered investing their time in poetry instead of money-making ventures a worthwhile endeavor. In several community organizations that I volunteer for the average age of these selfless volunteers is typically well over sixty – retired people have time to contribute. It is much harder to interest younger generations in hard, unpaid labor. Perhaps, they too will join, once they retire. Meanwhile, our volunteers are working very hard.

      Alice Pero read hundreds of poems through the year to select Monthly Contest Winners, published together in Poetry Letter No. 1, 2022 and including the following winners:

January 2021 - Theme: Nature, Seasons, Landscape

·        First Prize: Dr. Emory D. Jones,  "Sanctuary"

·        Second Prize: Marlene Hitt, "Summer of Fire"

·        Third Prize: David Anderson, "The Coming Snow"

February 2021 - Theme: Love

·        First Prize: Claire J. Baker, "Speculation"

March 2021 - Theme: Open, Free Subject

·        First Prize: Julia Park Tracey - "Just One Thing"

April 2021 - Theme: Mythology, Dreams, Other Universes

·        First Prize: Jerry Smith "Aboriginal Americans"

·        Second Prize: Teresa Bullock "Plain Air, Oxford"

·        Third Prize: Ruth Berman "Praxilla's Folly"

May 2021 - Theme: Personification, Characters, Portraits

·        First Prize; Louise Kantro "Is That a Bird?"

·        Second Prize: Elaine Westheimer "Mending Its Own Business"

·        Third Prize: Elizabeth Kuelbs "The House Knows"

June 2021 - Theme: The Supernatural

·        First Prize: Gail White, "The Ghost in the Restaurant"

July 2021 - Theme: Childhood, Memoirs

·        First Prize: Corey Weinstein "Mezzrow's Mistake"

·        Second Prize: Keala Rusher "On Butterflies"

·        Third Prize: Chryss Yost "Canid"

August 2021 - Theme: Places, Poems of Location

·        First Prize:  Ahmad Aamir Malik (from Pakistan) "Montreal from a Departing Plane's Window"

·        Second Prize: Eileen Carole "Caribbean Dreams 1 & 2"

·        Third Prize: Lynn M. Hansen  "Anacapa, Island of Mirage"

September 2021 - Theme: Colors, Music, Dance

·        1st prize: Catherine McCraw, "Blue Plate Special"

·        2nd prize: Carla Schick,  "Other Miracles I Failed to Notice.(Remembering Coltrane's Dear Lord)"

·        3rd prize: Jonathan Ansley Ward, "Are Islands Alive"

October 2021 - Theme: Humor, Satire

·        First Prize: Joan Gerstein, "A Day of Races"

November 2021 - Theme: Family, Friendship, Relationships

·        First prize: Marilyn Robertson, "Cannery Row Mural, 1946"

·        Second prize: Cathy Porter, "Insatiable"

·        Third prize: Jeff Graham, "Ode: the 2020's"

December 2021 - Theme: Best of Your Best (award-winning or published poems)

·        First prize:  Lynn M. Hansen, "Storm Spiders"

·        Second prize   Elizabeth Kuelbs,  "Flower Moon"

·        Third prize    Louise Kantro, "By the Campfire, Borrego Desert"

The prize winning poems are published in three posts on our blog CaliforniaStatePoetrySociety.com; there is a search box on the right,

We already announced the Annual Contest Winners for 2021 in CQ 47:4, and thanked the Contest Judge, Georgia Jones-Davis and Contest Chair, Joyce Snyder. For the 2022 Contest, we invited Frank Iosue of Arizona to adjudicate the submissions, while the position of the Contest Chair is still vacant.  We welcome enthusiastic and hard-working volunteers!

The California Quarterly 47:4, Winter 2021, took a while to print and when it finally appeared, with a cheerful cover by Vera Campion, it turned out that a draft was sent to the printer and the issue was numbered 47:3, Autumn. We are now reprinting the contributors’ copies that will be mailed soon. It is such a beautiful issue, edited by William Scott Galasso, that we want poets to have the right cover in their personal archives. Apart from the printing error, the issue was very well received.  Russell Rowland send his congratulations, noting “many riches here, as always, much hard work on [the editor’s] your part in evidence, and an honor to be included.” Diane Lee Moomey, a poet and artist noted “such a fresh, joyful look, as always! Like a piece of fresh, ripe fruit…” Ellyn Maybe wrote: “Thank you both so very much, the California Poetry Quarterly issue is truly beautiful!” Finally, Jane Hilary observed:  “I received a copy of California Quarterly a couple of days ago and have had the pleasure of reading it from front to back then back to front.  You've done a truly brilliant job with it.  I love your Jim Volvano quote, how true. Volume 47 ably affords the opportunities for a ‘full day’ with the (sometimes not so) simple effort of sitting down to read it!  So many wonderful poems and what joy to actually have them in a book!  The whole thing is an absolute feast!”

       The lovely cover image of the current issue, entitled “Surrender” was designed by Diane Lee Moomey, a poet and artist from northern California. She is also among our contest winners, and poets included in the California Quarterly. I selected an image of kites above gently rolling hills, because I survived the last two years by spending afternoons with my kites either on the Oxnard beach or in the local hills (having to brave the chaparral at times to retrieve the fallen kites, since the winds are so unstable in the canyon). It is a relaxing activity to be alone with the sun and wind, and look up at the sky, where hawks circle around the colorful invaders. I took some videos of my kites, and wrote a longish poem, with the following stanza: “Flying kites is defying gravity. Flying kites is pure joy. / This is freedom itself, soaring towards the Sun, /circling around the Moon, tracing patterns among clouds.” Indeed, sometimes it is really good to “go, fly the kite” – and find joy in the simples of things.

~ Maja Trochimczyk, CSPS President

 

Note Card by Diane Lee Moomey


ABOUT THE EDITOR: MAJA TROCHIMCZYK, PRESIDENT (2019-)

Maja Trochimczyk is a Californian poet, scholar, translator, photographer, and non-profit director from Poland. She studied musicology at the University of Warsaw, Poland (M.A. 1986) and sound engineering at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw (M.A. 1987). In 1988 she emigrated to Canada and in 1994 she earned her Ph.D. in musicology from McGill University in Montreal. She held Postdoctoral Fellowships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (1994-1996),and the American Council of Learned Societies (2001-2002). Dr. Trochimczyk has been giving public readings and publishing her poetry since 2007. She published five books of poetry: Rose Always - A Love Story, 2008, rev. 2020; Miriam's Iris, or Angels in the Garden, 2008, both from Moonrise Press; Slicing the Bread, Finishing Line Press 2014, Into Light, and The Rainy Bread (Moonrise Press, 2016). She also edited four poetry anthologies: Chopin with Cherries: A Tribute in Verse (2010); Meditations on Divine Names (2012), Grateful Conversations (2018, co-edited with Kathi Stafford), and We Are Here: Village Poets Anthology (2020, co-edited with Marlene Hitt).  Her poetry and photographs appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, such as: Clockwise Cat, California Quarterly, Cosmopolitan Review, Magnapoets, Quill and Parchment, Ekphrasis Journal, Edgar Allan Poet Journal, Epiphany Magazine, Lily Literary Review, Loch Raven Review, Lummox Journal, OccuPoetry, Quill and Parchment, Phantom Seed, Pirene's Fountain, poeticdiversity, Poezja Dzisiaj, The Sage Trail, The Scream Online, San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, Spectrum and anthologies by Poets on Site, Southern California Haiku Study Group, and other collections. She edited CQ 44:4, 45:3, 46:4, 47:2 and 48:1.


She published seven books of music studies, including: Gorecki in Context: Essays on Music (2017),  Frederic Chopin: A Reserch and Information Guide (Routledge, 2015, co-edited with William Smialek), Lutoslawski: Music and Legacy (Polish Institute of Art and Sciences in Canada, 2014, co-edited with Stanislaw Latek), and Polish Dance in Southern California (East European Monographs, Columbia University Press, 2008). Her articles appeared in American Music, Contemporary Music Review, Musical Quarterly, Computer Music Journal, Muzyka, Studia Musicologica, Leonardo, Polish American Studies, Polin, Polish Review, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians II (Macmillan), Women Composers: Music Through the Ages (G.K. Hall), Lutoslawski Studies (Oxford University Press),  The Age of Chopin (Indiana University Press), 100 Lat Muzycznej Emigracji (MEA Kultura 2018), and Homage to Tansman (Wroclaw, 2019). Her musicology work was translated into Polish, German, French, Swedish, Chinese and Japanese. Dr. Trochimczyk is a recipient of PAHA's Creative Arts Prize (2016) for her two poetry books about WWII experience of Polish civilians, including her family under German and Soviet occupation (Slicing the Bread, 2014 and The Rainy Bread: Poems from Exile, 2016). She was also honored with PAHA's Distinguished Service Award (2014), and the 2007 Swastek Prize for her article about Polish folk dance groups in Southern California published in the Polish American Studies. In 2012 she was presented with a medal for the promotion of Polish culture "Zasluzony dla Kultury Polskiej" from the Minister of Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Poland. She also received numerous city and county honors celebrating her years of volunteering for the Polish-American community. 




ABOUT THE ARTIST: DIANE LEE MOOMEY

Diane Lee Moomey is a sculptor, watercolorist and collage artist who’s lived and wandered around the US and Canada —she now dips her gardener’s hands in California dirt. She also writes poetry, an experience that both seeds and is seeded by, her visual imagery. Recent watercolors include a series of "everyday goddesses" -- female figures engaged in the ordinary activities of life. Earlier work has explored the five Elements and their interactions. Forty of her watercolors may be seen in the set of Journey Cards entitled "Paths, Portals, Elements", available through her website, dianeleemoomeyart.com.

Aquifer, watercolor by Diane Lee Moomey