Contents of California Quarterly Vol. 49, No. 1 (Spring 2023), Edited by Konrad Tademar Wilk

California Quarterly, Vol. 49, No. 1 (Spring 2023)

Edited by Konrad Tademar Wilk

Cover Image: Untitled by Zdzislaw Beksinski, Historical Museum of Sanok, Poland

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Start Somewhere  ~ Cathy Porter  7

Prophecy ~ Jane Stuart 7

Pilgrimage  ~ Diane Lee Moomey 8

Berlin on Foot ~ Günther Bedson 9

Dream-walking a Year Later in the  Gardens of Charlottenburg Castle  ~  Günther Bedson 10

Autumn Leaves in Spring  ~ Lucia Kiersch Haase 11

Enchantment ~ Walker Abel   12

The Babies Are in Bloom Again  ~ Michael Fraley 13

Under the Mulberry Bush  ~  Konrad Tademar Wilk 14

Night Sounds ~ Michael Fraley 15

Pearling  ~ Diane Lee Moomey     16

Japan  ~ Kevin Thornburg 16

Painted Desert ~ Emory Jones                17

Elk and Driftwood ~ Pamela Biery 18

It Beckoned Me  ~ Ravi Sonakia 20

Passion ~  Livingston Rossmoor 20

Identity ~ Julia Cadwallader Staub 21

Divine Sculpture   ~ Emory Jones   22

Roadside Cross  ~ Oriana Ivy 23

The Enlightenment of Touch ~ Walker Abel 24

Message ~ Julia Cadwallader Staub 24

Habitat  ~ Quito Regalo 25

The Cyclops  ~ Diana DeCillis 26

Tranquility Base ~ Don Palmer 27

The Hard-skinned Fruit ~ Jay A. Adler 28

Bluey ~ Jenny McBride 29

All You Left Me  ~ Günther Bedson 30

It’s All Gone Now ~ Ravi Sonakia 30

Aunt Ruth’s Lace Gloves ~ Kit Kennedy 31

Transmutation  ~ Leonard Moon 32

Would That It Could  ~ Elżbieta Czajkowska 33

My Imperceptible Basket and the  Apathy of Moral Dignity ~ Adam Torkelson  34

Cow in Trees ~ John Rowe 35

KONRAD TADEMAR WILK,  EDITOR

Elected to the Board of Directors of CSPS in May 2020, Konrad Tademar Wilk is an American poet living in Los Angeles. His works range from single sonnets to epic poems on themes including current events, myth, and philosophy. In addition to American subjects, his work is strongly informed by international events and history, especially those of freedom and oppression. Tademar's early childhood was spent in Poland where he was particularly influenced by the rise of the anti-communist Solidarity labor union.

Following his return to the U.S., he studied philosophy and literature at Los Angeles City College where he was president of the Poet's Platform. He then went on to graduate from UCLA. His poetry book Fifty Sonnets, titles like labels only get in the way... is available for purchase on-line.  Other poetry chapbooks are out of print. He is currently working on two epic poems "Prometheus" and "Trafficking In Time" - scheduled for release in the near future. He has appeared in Los Angeles venues such as the Onyx, Ground's Zero, Magicopolis Theater, Wilshire Art Gallery, Bolton Hall Museum, and Pig and Whistle. In 1991, he founded the Witching Hour Poetry Gathering which has met continuously for over 20 years. 

Additionally, he is a founding member of the Pecan Pie Organization, dedicated to artistic promotion and stage performances.  Mr. Tademar recently served as the artistic director for Warsaw 80/75 performance of poetry, dance and music, celebrating the 80^th anniversary of the outbreak of WWII (German attack on Poland), and the 75^th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.  The event was held at the Santa Monica Playhouse in September 2019.

Some of his stories and poems are available on the internet.

Untitled by Zdzislaw Beksinski, Oil on Canvas, 1980, 87cm X 87 cm.

NEWSBRIEFS 2023, NO. 1,  SPRING 2023

Another spring, another crisis, another war… The Wheel of Fortune is turning, on and on, and instead of falling off into a ditch of anger, fear or resentment, we keep doing what we are here to do: publish and honor the best poetry we can find. “The Best” is very personal and individual; what one person cherishes another finds boring. So we do not do anything by committee – our Annual Contest has one Judge per year (Frank Iosue last year, Anna Maria Mickiewicz this  year), our Monthly Contests have one Contest Chair and Judge, Alice Pero, and our Quarterly has a group of Editors, each completely responsible for one issue per year or less often if there are more editors actively involved in the publication work. To lessen their workload we occasionally invite Guest Editors and we recently had the pleasure of working with Margaret Saine and Deborah P Kolodji in that role. Our Editor of CQ 49:1 is Konrad Tademar Wilk who edited one issue last year. Relatively new to the Editorial Board are also Bory Thach who had edited two issues so far and William Scott Galasso who edited one.

The California Quarterly Vol. 48, No. 4 edited by Deborah P Kolodji included many poets not previously published by the CQ and was praised for its content. With about 600 poems submitted per issue, and multiple withdrawals of poems published elsewhere, we decided to make important changes to our California Quarterly submission requirements, NOT allowing simultaneous submissions as of January 1, 2023 and instead promising to notify all authors within four months of submission. This will hopefully reduce the number of poems to be reviewed, without impacting their quality. 

A second submission change concerns Monthly Contests – we decided to allow previously published poems among the submissions and that change also starts from January 2023. We expect that it will result in the increase of the number of submissions of high-quality poems for us to honor and reprint. The Monthly Contest winners are posted on our blog and published in the quarterly Poetry Letter. 

CSPS is pleased to announce the 36th 2022 ANNUAL POETRY CONTEST. Submissions are accepted March 15th – June 30th, 2023. The three prize-winning poems will receive cash prizes and will be published in the California Quarterly, Vol. 49, No. 4 (2023 Winter). Poems selected for up to six Honorary Mentions may be published in the CQ or in the Poetry Letter, depending on the Editors’ choices. Submissions are welcome of original, unpublished poems in English, with 80-line (two-page) limit per poem. How to submit: Submissions are only accepted by mail.  Send a cover letter with all poet information  (mailing address, email address, name, phone) and a list of the titles of all submitted poems, as well as one copy of each poem with no poet identification, and a check for the appropriate reading fees to:  Annual Contest Chair / P.O. Box 4288 Sunland, CA 91041-4288. Further information is below in the section on Annual Contests. 

Our 2023 Contest Judge, a Polish-British bilingual poet Anna Maria Mickiewicz is a poet, writer, editor, translator, and publisher. She is the founder of the publishing house Literary Waves that published many volumes of poetry in English and Polish. Born and raised in Poland, Anna moved to California and then to London, where she has lived for many years.  She is a member of the English Pen. Her poetic works have appeared in the United States, UK, Australia, Canada, Poland, Mexico, Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, Salvador, India. 

The three prize-winning poems from the 2022 Annual Contest, adjudicated by Frank Iosue of Arizona have been published in the California Quarterly Vol. 48, No. 4 and reprinted in the Poetry Letter No. 1 of 2023, along with Judge’s comments and the poems that won Honorary Mentions. First Prize:  Jeanne Wagner – “Dolores Street”; Second Prize: Susan Wolbarst – “After”; Third Prize: Claire Scott – “Ariadne Auf Naxos”; Honorary Mentions: 1. Claire Scott – “S & H Green Stamps”; 2. Claire Scott – “Motel Rooms of Last Resort”; 3. Claire Scott – “The Sea Squirt Loses Its Mind”; 4. Susan Wolbarst – “Where’s Ginny?”; 5. Claire Scott – “In the Revised Version: A Different Mother”; 6.  Sunny Yim Alperson – “Husband’s Urn”.

The Poetry Letter also features three poems by Les Bernstein from her recent book Loose Magic (Finishing Line Press). Book reviews in the Poetry Letter discuss: Shadows Thrown by Laura Ann Reed (Pauline Dutton), Saffron Skies by William Scott Galasso (Maja Trochimczyk) and Juliusz Erazm Bolek’s Ogród /The Garden in Polish and English (Jan Stępień), with two sample poems included, translated by Anna Maria Mickiewicz & Steve Rushton. Two reviews are by Michael Escoubas, shared from the Quill and Parchment, and presenting Synergy, by Kathy Lohrum Cotton & Michael Scott, M.D.; and Alice’s Adventures: A Modern Version of Lewis Carroll’s Classic in Verse, by Paul Buchheit. 

The CSPS Poetry Letters continue to be published online, with PDF versions emailed to about 450 poets and poetry lovers; and the online posts divided into two, book reviews and poems. The ISSN application was submitted and is pending.

Maja Trochimczyk, CSPS President

CSPS Poetry Letter No. 4 of 2022, Part 2 - Reviews of Books by Croce, Zawinski and Dolphin

 

 Beach Sunset Blossom by Maja Trochimczyk

This is the second part of the CSPS Poetry Letter No. 4 of 2022; the first part included featured poets Kathi Stafford and Susan Rogers and the poems nominated to Pushcart Prizes 2022 were posted separately.  There are three reviews of books by Shakira Croce, Andrena Zawinski, and Lara Dolphin. 

MICHAEL ESCOUBAS  REVIEWS  LEAVE IT RAW BY SHAKIRA CROCE

24 poems, 30 pages, published by Finishing Line Press. ISBN 978-1-64662-265-8

https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/leave-it-raw-poems-by-shakira-croce/

As a reviewer the first thing I consider about a collection is the title. Leave it Raw. Who would use those words for a poetry collection and why? I don’t want my food served “raw.” I want it cooked according to the recipe. I don’t want my body rubbed “raw” by the clothes I wear. I want garments whose textures and styles are kind to my body. In conversation, I dislike “raw” language that irritates my sensibilities. Give me well-heeled vocabulary and good verbal manners. Leave it Raw. What is this?

Poet Shakira Croce invites her readers to join her on a journey. It is a pilgrimage of sorts. Croce visits familiar places and experiences. These include making sense out of life after losing everything in a fire (“The Remains”). “Homecoming” returns readers to those long ago days when:

      King and Queen

      walk down the 50-yard line,

      but she feels the arena of eyes

      still on her.

“Commuter’s Pastoral” studies a once robust man in the dim light of old age. I give these examples merely to point out that Shakira Croce is a gifted poet. Her poetry paints compelling pictures of reality. Hence, her title, Leave it Raw. When poets tell the truth,  the results get our attention. I interpret “raw” in the sense that Croce takes a “fresh” perspective on her subjects.

Croce’s writing style is verse libre. She uses it well. Line break decisions result in pleasant reading cadences. Her poems look good on the page. She varies presentation between couplets, tercets, quatrains and poems without stanza breaks. Croce does not employ end-rhyme. I’m impressed by her craftmanship. Interlinear rhyme, assonance and alliteration are hallmarks of her work.

Earlier I used the term Pilgrimage. Croce includes a poem by that title. I reproduce it here as Exhibit A in my thesis that raw means “freshening of life”:

     We can make up time in the air,

     the captain explained,

     or at least that’s what I understood

     between the fuzzy intercom and

     broken English,

     not mentioning we’d lose

     six hours crossing the Atlantic.

     They say animals have a different

     internal clock, without feeling

     passing weeks and years.

     Yet the butterfly with a tear

     across her right wing

     returns at noon each day

     to that same turn in the road,

     darting between rosemary and dandelions drying

     in the honeyed weeds.

     The sense of smell is the strongest

     for us all to find food, a partner.

     Flowers waiting to procreate on a cliff above the sea

     bring me back to where I was born.

     After spending a lifetime thousands of miles away

     that simple power lets me know my home

     is not where I live

     but a long climb up from Roman rocks and ruins

     to the stuff springing from

     the uncut earth.

In “Pilgrimage” the poet considers the meaning of place. During a tedious flight across the Atlantic she muses that even a wounded butterfly has a strong sense of belonging. The butterfly returns again and again to those environs which propagate life. The “raw” truth is that occasionally, if we’re looking, we gain a fresh perspective—and life can never be the same again.

This is precisely why Leave it Raw should be in everyone hands. The best poets take the commonplace and infuse it with freshness not thought of before. Best of all, Shakira Croce’s poetry reflects a good mind. Hers is a mind which takes a deep dive into her subjects. “A Second Honeymoon” demonstrates that Croce knows where her readers live. Two quatrains follow:

     Last night I don’t know why

     we were fighting.

     I think you felt like

     everything was on your shoulders.                                        

     . . .  . . . 

     It’s time to plan

     a break from working our way

     up, shift scenery, and

     rest our limbs from the climb.

We have come full circle. Leave it Raw is a pilgrimage down the road of life. Reserve your seat on the plane and buckle up.

                                            ~  Michael Escoubas  first published in  Quill & Parchment

JUDITH R. ROBINSON REVIEWS BORN UNDER THE INFLUENCE  BY ANDRENA ZAWINSKI 

ISBN 978-1625494160, 130 pages, $20.00  https://www.wordpoetrybooks.com/zawinski.html

Andrena Zawinski, author of Born Under the Influence, is a poet of time and place but that is clearly not all: This is a voice of great experience. Equally notable for this reader is Zawinski’s extraordinary skill with the many forms of poetry; this collection contains villanelles, pantoums, rondel. and sonnets, all brightly rendered. One of her specialties is the haibun: A haibun is a Japanese genre of writing that mixes chiefly autobiographical prose with haiku. Here is a beautiful example:

SUMMER HAIBUN

Summer’s long light swells with bright lemons, melons, corn, the silken thoughts, facets of sunlight cascading along waves, run of shorebirds sweeping the horizon.

It is for young mothers jostling babies in low tide or for dozing on the soft lull of water lapping the shore beneath an untamed sky feathered in oncoming sunset.

This time of day curtains billow at windows in soft light, sun squints in above a rippling bay as summer knocks at the door and we answer

a wail of seagulls

winging wild above a catch

eyes fixed past us

Andrena Zawinski

In addition to her range with form, Zawinski’s work can be quite lyrical, even when referring to gritty beginnings— From “Anchorless in the Light”

     I cannot resist lingering here

     in this veil of white light blinding with beauty,

     reminding to hold onto this, hold it close and dear

     as I was once stuck inside glass and brick, sight set

     on neighboring city decks, their hubbub, drunken songs

     brouhaha, all of it weedy with ivy, bats circling chimneys,

     unlike these distant hills yet to be peopled.

—and as we travel with her from a girlhood in western Pennsylvania, with its rivers, mills & furnaces where she reveals—

     The milkman’s daughter

      is what I longed to be.

      I loved when the sun rose and buttermilk came,

      pulled off the seal and foiled cap, ringed my finger

      around chunks of yellow fat at the bottle’s lip, shook

      and spilled it into a glass, salted and gulped it down.

(Interestingly, she reminds us in an endnote that a milkman’s daughter referred to a child of adultery, at a time when women were housebound.) --through an American, mid-20th-century  childhood::

     From those ----

     drawn-out summers

     sticky with sweat, bare feet stung

     by pavement, racing inside to box fans

     for a wash of syncopated cool, waiting

     for something bigger to arrive…

—to young adulthood when:

     Getting stiffed on tips waiting corporate parties, sweating out

     mid-summer short orders of cheesy omelettes and fluffy pancakes

     washed down with pitchers of Bloody Marys and Mimosas.

     Grabbed by the throat by a drunken pill-popping veteran

     for shutting him off from another Long Island Iced Tea.”

It is also worth noting that Zawinski has enormous knowledge of other people’s work, which she acknowledges as influencers throughout this collection. She generously tips her poet’s hat to Adrienne Rich, Maggie Anderson, Wislawa Szymborska, Gerald Stern, and many others.

Also impressive is the volume of solid work in this collection, much of it finding a place here after publication and awards from many fine literary journals. Finally, perhaps the greatest pleasure in reading Born Under The Influence, is the opportunity to participate in the fully realized life of an intelligent, engaging woman. In over 100 vivid poems, we live it right with her.  There are even forms called cherita and landay, both new to this reader.

~ Judith R. Robinson

Judith R. Robinson is a visual artist, editor, teacher, fiction writer and poet. 

MICHAEL ESCOUBAS REVIEWS CHRONICLE OF LOST MOMENTS  BY LARA DOLPHIN

21 poems, 35 pages, Dancing Girl Press

Among the many aphorisms uttered by Wallace Stevens is this gem: "Poetry is a response to the daily necessity of getting the world right." I have always treasured that quote because it gets to the heart of poetry and why people write poetry. As I immersed myself in Lara Dolphin’s latest chapbook, Chronicle of Lost Moments, I was impressed by Dolphin’s eye for detail and heart for the ironies of life. Her poetry demonstrates an affinity akin to Stevens. More on this later.

I lead with the poem which opens the collection: “As The Earth Regards the Anthropocene”:

     All our stuff (the concrete the asphalt

     the gravel the plastic) outweighs every

     living thing on the planet from the Pando

     aspens to the pygmy possum—

     creation waits for us and while it’s easy

     for gestures long-delayed like a greeting card

     lost in the mail or a flight stuck on the tarmac—

     it’s almost lunch and I’m at the donation center

     chatting with Dave as he helps unload a trunk

     full of gently-used clothes books and toys—

     he’s told me that he’s five months sober 

     he won’t get the kids for the holiday

     I tell him about my job the long hours

     the low pay my car that won’t stay fixed

     so there we stand among the stuffed animals

     and kitchen appliances feeling

     the weight of the world on our shoulders.

The title segues into Dolphin’s themes: “Anthropocene” refers to human activity as it relates to climate and environment. I researched Pando aspens and the pygmy possum. A large Pando aspen grove in Utah is in grave danger from several outside influences. I did not know that this tree grove, with its lovely yellow foliage, is the single largest organism in the world and has been around for thousands of years.

There are fewer than 2,000 pygmy possums left in the world. This cute creature is prey to several predators and suffers from a reduction in food supply. These potential losses may seem trivial to some but not to Dolphin. Moving into the heart of the poem, the poet chronicles a series of “ordinary” things common to daily life. These “lost moments” pile on and weigh us down . . . while “creation waits” for meaningful human responses to challenges that could have irreversible impact on life as we know it.

Stylistically, Dolphin writes in free verse. When she uses rhyme, she uses it well. “Lost In L.A.” illustrates:

     There is no worry of wind or snow

     or time or place in Godot’s Hyperloop below

     sidewalks where children run and play

     near streets where out-of-towners lose their way.

     No trains, parades or fire trucks

     no snapping turtles, so safe of ducks

     will slow the traffic as it flows

     to listen, for what, no one knows.

     Where cars sail by on electric skates

     and no one sees and nothing waits.

While a variety of environmental themes permeate Dolphin’s Chronicle, poetry as fun and entertaining is important to her. “Pace of Play” pokes fun at baseball. It’s slow pace is about as boring as waiting for the oven to heat. Don’t miss this one!

Dolphin’s heart for her husband showcases one of many tender moments included in Chronicle. Her innate pathos shines in “The Best Time To Plant A Tree”:

     we were classmates in seventh grade                           

     hanging out at band practice

     riding the same bus home

     we made out in high school

     then went our separate ways

     four years of collect passed

     before we met again

     and another five years would pass

     before you got serious and I got smart

     and you asked me to marry you

     the fifth anniversary is wood

     so let’s plant a tree to celebrate

     we make a hole two times larger

     than the nursery container is deep

     for our hearty Appalachian Redbud

     as we dig I try to remember

     the last time I told you I love you

     that you are my lifesource, my breath

     I should have told you twenty years ago

     the second best time is now.

I thought the author should have used the title, Chronicle of Lost Moments Recovered. The tenderness and maturity enshrined in the above poem is  precisely why. In it Lara Dolphin understands that  poetry is a response to the daily necessity of getting  the world right.

                                        ~ Michael Escoubas, first published in Quill & Parchment                                  

Beach Sunset by Maja Trochimczyk

                                                   

CSPS Poetry Letter No. 4, 2022, Part 1 - Featured Poets Kathi Stafford and Susan Rogers

Ladybug Luminous by Susan Rogers

 The CSPS Poetry Letter No. 4 of 2022 included six poems nominated for Pushcart Prizes (published here in December), as well as two featured poets, Kathi Stafford and Susan Rogers.  The book reviews published in the Poetry Letter 4/2022 will be posted separately.

FEATURED POET - KATHI STAFFORD

Kathi Stafford is the author of Blank Check, a poetry collection, and co-editor and contributing author of Grateful Conversations, an anthology of Los Angeles poets. She previously served as Poetry Editor and Senior Editor for Southern California Review for many years. Her poetry, reviews and interviews have been published in many journals, such as Rattle, Hiram Poetry Review, Connecticut River Review, Chiron Review, Nerve Cowboy, and Southern California Review. Her poetry has been anthologized in Chopin and Cherries and Sea of Alone: Poems for Hitchcock. Stafford is a corporate attorney who is also a  violinist with Brookwood Strings and a banjo player and alto for the Staffords, a bluegrass band.

EARTH

March 1st     Rabbit rabbit 

Rabbit doesn’t help this time      In a hospital

Room I’m on the floor      Day of my disaster

Cancer in gut     Foundations of earth and my

Life laid bare       Bible on the nightstand

Cords of death pull tight at 2 am       I am so

Alone       the disease my powerful enemy

I am on a fine line in the dirt      I’m only mud

In this moment    on an edge between being and

Nonbeing

   Nothing left and yet

Supreme love     reaches down  rescues me

Cords loosened   I still breathe air mixes with

Dust      He brings me into a spacious place of

Beauty    Ferns orchids lantana spring up under

These feet     the day of rescue and

Clean hands lifted in praise for eternity

THE SPACE BETWEEN

On the edge of sleep, here sits the yes

In the magic space between now and maybe

Between the star and its implosion   I find 

Joy too much    Music the bridge between

Galaxy’s edge and this mild heart of mind

Opposite sides of the glass

I wish for a tiny denouement

I kiss the raccoon and he turns into a

Fish     Or a ruddy prince

He sniffs the air     On his hind legs

He wants in    He thinks he wants to be tamed

If he only knew 

Waiting for Us by Maja Trochimczyk 

BLANK CHECK

One year ago today: My first go 

At radiation. The tech with his arms

Flu of blue tattoos and scars eases me 

Into place. The quiet clicking

Machine drones on as I hold still

In its shadow. A thin red light razors

Below my skin, down to an ocean of

Cells and fear. In a few weeks, my skin will

Scale off—each strip delicate

And lacy. So individual, each layer

With its sheer story of my past. Some women

Much stronger than I am

Thirty-three times I go home after and burrow

Into sleep, so hard and final.

I win the lottery. One year come

And gone

With no new lumps. This is a gift 

And a wonder yo me. Will there always be

A blank check

Made out 

To future scars?

May I never ask the right questions.

There’s a tale for every traveler.

The tech guy talks about his newborn,

Jimmy, three months old, while shines

With joy. Jimmy almost in the room with us

Talcum powdered and fresh

The man is trying to distract me.

I laugh and

Take it all in.

My pain held up on all four corners

By the prayers lifted by my saints, my friends, toward

Gentle sky, oh Metta, oh peace of my Lord.   

    

BANYAN

I drive toward the airport   3 am in a hot

Bengalaru night          I drive past a park

Full of banyan trees     where one man 

Sits beneath the         Strangler fig

Shared with a        swarm of wasps

No fruit without the sting     He is wrapped in

White robes       His sweat precious as he achieves

Nirvana        The columns of the trunk ricketed and

Etched with        Many rivers of joy in this

National tree of India 

Elliptical leaves  with seeds spread 

By birds  frugivores soaring through 

Branches and with mutual bliss

Move the fruit         Far from the parent

The man leaves behind his robes

For his next ascension

Hill Clouds by Maja Trochimczyk

PSALM 30 DIVIDED AND CUT

Thou has lifted me

Thou has lifted me

And my foes have not rejoiced over me

Thou has lifted

I cried unto you

Cried unto you

Thou hast healed me

Pulled out the cancer cells

By surgeon hands

Thou hast healed me

You brought my soul out 

You brought this soul

Out from the grave  kept me from the pit

At 2 am on the March morning when my soul 

Almost slid away     I felt it going

Sing Give thanks at the remembrance 

Of His holiness

His gift of life

Weeping lasts a night

But with morning comes joy

I cried to Thee Lord

And in the morning you gave

Joy. Peace. My soul.

You turned my mourning into dancing and    

        gladness

Thank you forever for this extra day to see 

The precious granddaughter faces you gave me.

BORDERLAND

I am on the edge of old and older

My land pushes up to his land

In the field     three horses   sisters

And one pony.        In the land next door they

Wait next to the gathered trees     In sacred shade

One kneels to me     Do they remember apples

I brought them last spring?  I forget their names

Except for Bear       The little one black and

Impetuous.      One suffers from the pain that

Will not end while       Three witches stir their

Cauldron in the borderland  Six geese float at pond’s edge

Under Oaks and slash pines and two crows

Fly to them         for no known purpose.

Jasmine on the gate      Still blooms 

Its scent and whiteness        Bring me home

Help me find level ground

I’m dizzy these days

Ground beside the blue red roses  a cliche of beauty

GLAD HIVE

A tablespoon of honey and Aunt Ruth makes me

Swallow the comb  my throat 

Tickles.    Tiny wings scratch me close

Spit out the wax when she’s not looking

My little bee might miss his sisters     Or not

Let’s call him Fred for now      From Glad Hive

Next day Auntie steers the station wagon

Halfway across Oklahoma  encased in teak

Over to Glass Mountains. Though they are barely a

Mesa but we don’t argue    Free buzzes around

And my toe hurts

But I keep still

Auntie glows on the crest transformed

We scoot down the hill on our butts all the way

My cousins and I build an altar    One stone for each

Tribe    Near Rattlesnake Lake

Plains   Spread out every which way in a

Season of tall grass     

And barley rustling in the vicious

Wind where I am simply myself.   

 A very small girl in a big prairie.

Fuji Suddenly by Susan Rogers

FEATURED POET - SUSAN ROGERS

Susan Rogers considers poetry vehicles for light. She’s a practitioner of Sukyo Mahikari—a spiritual practice promoting positivity. In 2013, 2017 she received nominations for Pushcart Prizes. She’s co editor of A Sonic Boom of Stars and was one of four international judges for the 8th Rabindranath Tagore Award.  https://www.loispjones.com/susan-rogers. Publication Credits: “Numbers,” Kyoto Journal, Issue 92; “Longing for October,” Kyoto Journal, Issue 81; “A Field of Winter Grass,” Interlitq: California Poets Part 2; “The Origin is One,” Saint Julian Press, 2012; “Grass” and “Grateful Conversations,”  Grateful Conversations, 2018; “Return to Muir Woods,” Altadena Poetry Review, 2019; “Sunflowers in Your Hand,” Quill & Parchment, May 2019.

GRATEFUL CONVERSATIONS 

Everything we have we’re given

in love to use in love, in grace.

There is nothing we alone have written.

We are but a conversation

of light, through this exchange we trace

everything we have. We’re given

sour and sweet, lemon, raisin

and grain to bind them into place—

there is nothing we alone have written.

We eat cakes but have forgotten

their origin. We have erased

everything. We have, we’re given

we look, we laugh, we love, we listen.

We welcome gifts we embrace.

Yet there is nothing we alone have written.

Watch sunset turn to a ribbon.

Remember honey and its taste.

Everything we have we’re given.

There is nothing we alone have written.

A FIELD OF WINTER GRASS

  ~ after a photograph by Peter Sheffler

      “Winter Field Grasses, Far Away Point, Maryland”

To be still in the middle of chaos

to be singular in the midst of multiplicity

to be a line in a series of lines

a note in a chorus, a voice in the marsh

a reed in a tangle of stalks

to be woven in a field of complexity

yet still a thread, an arrow, a direction

an intention, a clear heart, a hidden blade

a crisscross of here and there, a slender

reaching strand of light, an intersection

of possibility a dance of detail, a piece of

the weave, a pattern of everything,

a field of winter grass.

Raindrops and Reflections by Susan Rogers

THE ORIGIN IS ONE

                      for Kotama Okada

 

The dove knows the way

follow her.

Your heart knows the way

listen well.

 

Within your deepest self

are wings of light.

They cover the earth

with waves of love.

 

Do you remember?

You once knew.

 

Stand in the warmth

of sunlight and recall.

 The origin of the world

is one.

 

The origin of religions

is one.

 

The origin of all

humankind is one.

 

Circle back.

Imagine the great will

 

of all things

stirring in your fingers.

 

Reach out your arms

and open your palms

 

to the sky.

It is time.

Paradise Sky by Susan Rogers

 

NUMBERS

When she thinks of her husband,

she thinks of a half-moon carrying a shadow half behind.

The moon never loses fullness,

even if it is draped by night.

Once she could see the moon's unsevered disc,

no matter what portion lit the sky, and in its one, cool light 

complete herself. Now she finds only broken shapes, 

sees semi-circles separated.  She does not know how

to live in two places at a time. For three or four months 

she thought she could be the sky 

suspended in space above their cities. 

But it has been five or six years; he has not appeared.

She feels hollowed like air inside a weightless cloud. 

Seven days a week, she composes letters in her head, 

but cannot find eight lines to explain emptiness. 

Her nine koi fish swim in bright scaled circles in the pond 

They cannot distract her. She thinks again about walking

ten miles to the pavilion, but has walked this road 

a hundred times before, envisioned him returning 

a thousand times and more. Today, it seems 

ten thousand miles separate them.

If she knew the words, the numbers, she would write a poem.

She thinks of ancient China, of Zou Wenjun

who waited for her husband at a pavilion

when he was sent to the capitol for months which spun

into years. Zou Wenjun waited spinning words and tears 

into a numbered verse and when her husband sought divorce

showed him the poem. Greatly moved, he changed his mind.

Where in this ordered universe can she find

the words to fill a heart? She will have to start again,

relearn the edges of a circle, reclaim the white light

     of her first moon.

GRASS

Yesterday, someone I know

Looked through me

like I wasn’t there,

as if I were a field of air,

insubstantial and invisible.

Today, I think of my great teacher

who said,

 “Become a practitioner of genuine humility,”

and a modern saint who said,

 “A cyclone can destroy the mightiest of trees,

but even a cyclone cannot touch the grass.

This is the greatness of humility.”

So today I have decided to become like grass,

which needs no encouragement

but water, sun and sky,

which is invisible, often, as we walk by,

a genuine practitioner of humility.

It is true the grass is sometimes mowed;

but that just keeps it safe from storms,

close to the ground, close to you.

Oh God of all things great and small,

cyclone, trees, dirt,

let me strive to always be like grass,

cool comfort for the earth.

So that children may run through me,

barefoot on a summer day

and I may greet them, or catch them if they fall,

soft and green and sweet, with no resistance        

         to their play,

almost invisible, pure reason for their joy

Japanese Maples by Susan Rogers

RETURN TO MUIR WOODS

In the cathedral of trees

sunlight christens moss-grown branches—

a sacrament.

I breathe in 

air of clear intention

purified, re-written.

In the cathedral of trees

I smile at each person I pass

sharing the wisdom of woods.

So many voices mingle:

English, French, Italian, Farsi.

Each harmonized in hope.

I caress a broken trunk on its side

a moment of camaraderie

thanking it for pointing me to sky.

In the cathedral of trees

I walk with you 

each tree 

a testament I read now

and save for later.

I do not know

if the path through

is straight or a loop

that circles back to myself.

Either way I return.

Muir Woods by Susan Rogers

SUNFLOWERS IN YOUR HAND

I wonder if I will recognize you

when you return

in a different form.

I like to think your breath

so intimately part of mine

that when you are reborn

even if you wear

white organza as a bride,

or the black habit of a nun,

if you appear much younger

than you were

in a sweater striped in cyan blue

with wild sunflowers in your hand

I will remember you,

just as I remember the shine

of a sun dazzled stream

after it’s gone dry, the rhythm

of staccato rain when I swing

my hammock under cloudless skies,

or the sound of laughter

in a dream of exquisite joy.

Even if you choose to be my cat,

a hummingbird, a bright scaled koi.

And if you are born in another country,

don’t speak words I understand

if you are not female this time

but instead a boy, I hope there will be

some note of you that sings,

your music indisputably

through the differences of then and now,

so I will know you are the one

that it’s you come back

in whatever form you come.