Contents of California Quarterly Vol. 49, No.3 (Autumn 2023) Edited by Nicholas Skaldetvind

California Quarterly, Vol. 49, No. 3 (Fall 2023), edited by Nicholas Skaldetvind

Cover Art: Little Gland (Pulp Painting on Handmade Paper)

 by Nicholas Skaldetvind (July 2022), 10.5” X 8”

 

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Toppled Statues  — Jim Dunn 7

In the Cathedral  — John Grey 8

Unhomeliness — Paul Schreiber 9

A Father’s Death — Paul Schreiber 10

Tonight I’ll Dance —  Paul Schreiber 12

Brineflight — Jeff Graham  14

In Praise of Blue — Ruth Bavetta 15

The 1970s  — Charles Rafferty 16

I Like to Think of Myself as Having Goals — Charles Rafferty 16

Purses  — Charles Rafferty 17

East Ridge, Ascot Hills — Gregory Cecil 18

Mais Où Sont Les Neiges D’Antan?  — Rick Anthony Furtak 19

Tumult  —  Lauro Palomba 20

Snow — Susie Meserve 21

List —  Susie Meserve 22

Hiking in Tilden Park on the Last Day of Summer   — Susie Meserve 23

Hopland Overhead —  Susie Meserve 24

Homeward Over Sonora Pass, August 2020, Listening to a Podcast About the Painter Egon Schiele, Who Died of Spanish Flu  — Susie Meserve 25

Pieter Brueghel The Elder’s Fall of Icarus —  Kevin McDaniel 26

Window Magic  — Dianna MacKinnon Henning 27

Inchanting  — Rhea Krčmářová 28

Anamnesis — Anthony Caleshu 29

Το Αιώνιο Μάτι Τησ Σιωπήσ — Γεράσιμος Σωτ. Γαλανός 30

The Eye  — Nicholas Skaldetvind, transl. 31

Promesa Aérea  — Almaguer 32

An Airy Promise — Margaret Saine, tr. 33

Eigentlich Sollte Man —  Karl Greisinger 34

Actually One Shouldn’t —  Margaret Saine, tr. 35

Evening Tree —  Edward Garvey 36

57 The Fox God’s Shrine  — Jim Ellis 37

Lost in Stockholm —  Thomas Lavelle 38

Any Wonder — Thomas Lavelle 39

The Muse — Craig Cotter 39

Night Hoops — Thomas Lavelle 40

Saturn’s Children (After Goya) — Cary Barney 41

Broken Bird (c. 1988) — Cary Barney 42

Broken Bird II (2023) — Cary Barney 43

Tête à Tête — Carolyn Jabs 44

January —  Mathias Toivonen 45

Arctic Circle 1 — John James 46

Arctic Circle 2  — John James 47

Arctic Circle 3 —  John James 48

Spring  — Edward Garvey 49

Watching the Garden Embrace Light  —  Beau Beausoleil 50

A Movement —  Adam Day 51

Night   —  Adam Day 51   

Isolation Songs  — Karla Kelsey 52

A Summer Day Dislogic —   Brandon Rushton 54

FROM MOTION STUDIES (VOL. I, FOUR PARTS) — Brandon Rushton 56

Suddenly —   Peter Gizzi 58

Editor’s Note

I’ve set out to present an example of poets’ vertical investigations abstracting from the muck and confusing murk a clattering of time, of place, of history, making the reader giddy with notions of the numinous, names, theories, dreams, dates, legends.  A good poem rewards this kind of looking.  These poets place themselves at the center of all time in that self-perpetuating way great mythic-figures have always done without border, age, limit and within a labyrinthine wonder.  Fresh and clean verse, pure and naked of pretense, as the wild waters and unmoored light which bathes the Ionian Islands’ and California’s dazzling coast alike.  

The content of these featured poems possesses an intimate quality veering towards a self-involved disposition bordering on narcissism or, in a better-fitting locution of our time, an encroachment on the autism spectrum.  The inherent lyrical structure bestowed upon these works imparts a sense of coherence and unity, steering the reader to believe this was a preconceived notion of collaboration.

Seekers of light and truth go beyond the California world.  They’ve roused me from a bedazzled stupor marked by a sense of inner-defeatism characterizing the better part of the last three months as I scoured after the alchemical “what” of the submitted poems, how to articulate my rationale in selecting a poem and then to sequence the thing.  Rather than “editor” I began to consider myself auditor of the human experience.  The principal reason they’ve been selected is pleasure.  As Peter Gizzi stated elsewhere about editing o•blék: a journal of language arts, “the discourse around poetics comes second; the poem has to lead.”  Each of these poems is its own incarnate statements of poetics.

The reward is this terrific group singing the relationship they share with the world.  Certain poets have widened my eyes with their singing: Dianna MacKinnon Henning, Jim Dunn, Karla Kelsey, John James, Susie Meserve, Charles Rafferty, Paul Schreiber.  Songs in which there is the recognizable sound of a human voice inducing you to continue reading.  I will also wager that if you are like me, you turn to poetry as a means of revealing that which pertains to yourself, for the possibility that another poet out there will open a window for you that you didn’t before trust was there.  Faith.

Believing in magic in the sequence of poems, I was made aware of the reconciliation of one poet’s words weaving with another’s in sympathetic magic in the loose form of journey as they progress.  My aim has been to sequence them into a shape of communal feeling.  And, as with any decent anthology, you are able to open at random and Dame Fortune will enfold you in the language’s sheer beauty of resonance.

Lastly, thanks to Aviva for encouraging me to try along the way. Thanks are due to The Board of The California State Poetry Society for trusting my judgment.  Thanks also to the keen Maja Trochimczyk for drawing my attention to poems I might have otherwise overlooked and for every little thing she does, and to the Ionion Center for providing me a peaceful place to write.  Thanks to the poets for offering such a rich assortment of verse.  And thanks are due to you, dear reader.  We are in society.

Nicholas Skaldetvind

California / Greece / New York 

GUEST EDITOR: NICHOLAS SKALDETVIND

Nicholas Skaldetvind is an Italian-American poet and paper-maker. He holds a M.A. (2019) from Stockholm University, Department of English and Transnational Creative Writing  (thesis "The Spontaneous Poetics of Jack Kerouac’s Letters from 1947-1956: Repetition, Language, and Narration.”)  In 2015 he received B.A degree from Saint Louis University, Madrid,  Department of Spanish Language and Literature, Department of International Studies, and Department of Ibero-American Studies. He is a recipient of numerous scholarships and grants, including  Graduate ERASMUS  Merit Scholarship (September 2018 – January 2019) at Bath Spa University. Department of English and Creative Writing in Bath, England; as well as scholarships at creative writing workshops at Berkeley, CA; Naropa University, Colorado and book arts and papermaking workshop at Wells College in Aurora, New York. He also was an undergraduate Exchange Student at the University of Copenhagen, Department of Political Sciences, English Literature, Spanish Literature, and Historical Linguistics (August 2012 – May 2016) and took a writing course in Danish in 2015. 

Skaldetvind's research and teaching interests include: Twentieth-century American Literature, Transnational Studies, Epistolary Poetics, Life Writing, Literature of the American West, Papermaking and Book Arts, Fibers and Shrinkage, and Paper Drying Process. He is a multilingual poet and writer: native speaker in English, with advanced knowledge of Spanish, Danish,  intermediate knowledge of Swedish, Portuguese, Italian, and French. 

NEWSBRIEFS 2023, NO. 3, AUTUMN 2023 

             We are eagerly awaiting the results of the 2023 Annual Contest from the contest judge Anna Maria Mickiewicz.  She will be selecting the best poems from the batch of anonymous submissions forwarded to her without any identifying information. The three prize-winners will then be published in the last CQ of 2023 while the Honorary Mentions will be considered for publication.

                    The Poetry Letter obtained its ISSN: Online ISSN 2836-9394; Print ISSN 2836-9408. It is distributed in PDF format and posted on the website and the blog. The second issue of 2023 featured the list of monthly contest winners for 2022 and all poems, illustrated with colorful abstract paintings by Janusz Maszkiewicz, the founder of Vienna Woods Gallery, a proficient craftsman, sculptor, painter, and a member of Krakart Group of Polish American artists that exhibit their works together in the U.S. and Poland. Michael Escoubas’s review of Desert Flow (artwork by Adrián Caldera and poetry by Charlotte Hart) was illustrated with Caldera’s digital art. He also reviewed Hayley and the Hot Flashes by Jayne Jaudon Ferrer and Crystal Fire: Poems of Joy and Wisdom, edited by yours truly, with artwork by Ambika Talwar (14 paintings) and 144 poems by Elżbieta Czajkowska, Joe DeCenzo, Mary Elliott, Jeff Graham, Marlene Hitt, Frederick Livingston, Alice Pero, Allegra Silberstein, Jane Stuart, Ambika Talwar, Bory Thach, & the editor. All poets are CSPS members and several serve on the Board. The final review in the Poetry Letter No. 2 was of Joel Savishinsky’s Our Aching Bones, Our Breaking Hearts: Poems on Aging  by Nina Miller. Due to the editor’s error, William Scott Galasso’s review of Distance by Mariko Kitakubo and Deborah P. Kolodji, was omitted from this issue. The poets will have to wait for the Poetry Letter No. 3. Apologies.

       The two issues of the California Quarterly’s vol. 49, No. 1 (by Konrad Tademar Wilk) and No. 2 (by Maja Trochimczyk) continued to receive favorable comments from readers, praising the beautiful flow of poems in each issue and the artworks on their covers. During the CSPS Board Meeting on 22 April 2023, Nicholas Skaldetvind was confirmed as guest editor of the CQ. Skaldetvind holds a B.A. from St. Louis University in Madrid, Spain and M.A. from Stockholm University in Sweden. He is a double citizen of Italy and the U.S., fluent in English, Spanish, & Danish. He also speaks/reads Swedish, Portuguese, Italian and French… and he edited the CQ during his residency in Greece. At the same time, we said farewell to William Scott Galasso who edited CQ Vol. 47, No. 4, but had too many other poetry obligations, in the haiku world and publishing his own books to continue his work as a CQ Editor and member of the CSPS Board. He will be missed and we wish him success in all his projects.

       The Treasurer Report for 22 April 2023 Board Meeting listed the starting balance of $8,649.44 and 2023 YTD Balance of $10,324.32. The Treasurer noted that this was the best financial status of the organization in at least twenty years (since then, we spent funds on printing/mailing of the CQ, our largest expense). The online presence of the CSPS also continued to grow, with the blog having had overall 58,822 visitors by April 2023, and featuring 14 posts in 12 months. As expected, most of the readers last year came from the U.S. (6,360); they were joined by poetry lovers from Russia (763); the Netherlands (721); Belgium (443), Canada (424); the U.K. (343), Germany (301); and South Korea (249). It is amusing to see the strange statistics that machines collect for us. Our Facebook group had only 176 followers, so there’s room to grow.

      Member News. Sunland/Tujunga Poet Laureate Alice Pero had a six-page feature in "Cholla Needles 76" and a feature with Brendan Constantine at Village Poets in Bolton Hall Museum, Tujunga. She received a Commendation for her work with students this year at Fair Oaks School in Altadena.

     The National Federation of State Poetry Societies has a new president, Paul Ford. It held its Annual Convention, Catch Poetry: Stage & Page, on June 21-25, 2023 in West Des Moines, Iowa. It also organized the Blackberry Peach Spoken Word Poetry Competition and the National Slam, as well as 50 other poetry contests. Our Board decided that our interests focus on “printed” rather than “spoken” word—but do tell us if you think otherwise, and, please, volunteer for the NFSPS opportunities. More information in NFSPS Strophes: www.nfsps.com/Strophes2023%20-%20Aug.pdf

 

   ~ Maja Trochimczyk 

CSPS President

Figs by Maja Trochimczyk

Poetry Letter No. 2 (Summer 2023) - Part II. Review of Books by Hart&Caldera, Ferrer, Savishinsky, and Trochimczyk&Talwar

Janusz Maszkiewicz, Untitled 

This is the second part of the Poetry Letter No. 2 of 2023, the first part contained Monthly Contest Winners for 2022, and is found here: https://www.californiastatepoetrysociety.com/2023/06/poetry-letter-no-2-2023-part-i-poems.html. The poems were illustrated with paintings by Janusz Maszkiewicz, of Vienna Woods Gallery in Los Angeles. For book reviews, we have lots of artwork, but for the sake of consistency, one paintings by Maszkiewicz is here to start the post.

 

MICHAEL ESCOUBAS REVIEWS DESERT FLOW BY HART & CALDERA

Desert Flow. Art by Adrián Caldera. Poetry by Charlotte Hart. 78 works of abstract digital art & 78 poems in English ~ 78 poems in Spanish. Published by Cloud Hands Press US price $30, ISBN: 978-0-9861649-0-6. To order: https://www.cloudhandspress.com

Cloud Hands Press has outdone itself with its latest gem. Desert Flow is a collaborative project featuring creations by abstract digital artist Adrián Caldera paired with poems by Charlotte Hart.  Although, a student of ekphrastic poetry, I was unprepared for the challenge presented to my sensibilities by Caldera and Hart. My goal, in this review, is to capture some of their synergy as each  artist’s work bears the footprint of the other. Theirs is a conversation in art and poetry which flows like a desert in bloom from hearts nourished by love.

Charlotte Hart’s introduction and Ethan Plaut’s foreword helped me understand the genesis and development of Desert Flow.  Seemingly, by chance, (I don’t believe in chance, by the way) Hart saw a Caldera digital creation on Twitter in the spring of 2018.  Her unsolicited response to Caldera’s work began a long exchange of art and poetry. They have never met and, so far as I can tell, have no plans to meet. Caldera resides in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; Hart lives in Chicago, Illinois. 

Caldera’s rich colorations within his near-genius abstract creations moved Hart, spiritually, emotionally and psychologically. In her words, Looking at his beautiful colors and widely varying shapes gave me a door into my inner life. Let’s discover together some of the delights on the other side of the door.

Can’t Wall the Sky

This sunlight moment

takes me with great speed

over long distances,

very gently, very kindly,

to the house we have built.

A four-dimensional hypercube home

that casts a

three-dimensional shadow

the endless parameters

of our lives:

tenderness

devotion

the splendor of all

no moment small

in the slow smile

of our days

in this world

of change and commotion,

we are secure

five senses

here.

I’m moved by the way Hart takes shades of sun, couples them with lines suggesting distance, movement and dimension, then merging with some of life’s most important heart-feelings. 

I Thought It Was You

My heart leapt out of my chest

and beat furiously in the air.

I touched the tarnished silver tube

holding the rolled prayer.

I opened the door and went in.

No, you were not.

Remembered kisses

exquisite pleasure

sensation of yearning

for my treasure

delirium of my disbelief!

Your colors and shapes flew

burnished red, rue and indigo

from the bare branches of my mind.

Your brazen spirit

burst meteor bright tonight

in me

then left me alone.

Hart’s testimony (see my opening) to Caldera’s art opening a door to my inner life, comes to life in this poem. How precisely a work of art breathes life into the human spirit is best left to the individual to know and explain. Perhaps this is what Wallace Stevens once referred to as the “Angel of reality.” What Stevens meant was the ability of poetry to lay bare the poet’s “brazen spirit.” To bring forth variegated colors of life and their latent emotions . . . emotions that “beat furiously in the air.”

My Love Will Live Forever

Unseen as currents

in the air and sea,

forever.

See the seeds and spores

floating in wind,

and the iridescent plankton

illuminating the shore?

Every word we said,

every smile,

every kiss and tear

flow hidden, fresh,

indestructible.

Hart’s poetic style flows from deep within. As demonstrated by “My Love Will Live Forever,” hers is a poetry that is disarmingly simple on the surface. Don’t let this fool you. Each word belongs. Each word is irreplaceable. Poetic devices such as sibilance, alliteration, and thoughtful endline decisions are consistent hallmarks. Rhymes are occasional and usually interlinear. Her cadences are rhythmical and delight the ear with  the musicality of words.

The Will of the River

goes in its golden flow.

You know it’s

shimmering touch.

The currents carry you,

sunlight submissive.

You are the boatman

the boat

the river

the flow

the going

beyond

anything can show.

This poem captures, for me, some of the essence of the relationship between Caldera’s abstract digital art and Hart’s poetic responses. Within the poet’s contemplations of the art, I sense her love of color, love of energy within the paintings themselves, which resemble dormant desert blooms, already present, but needing water from the poet’s pen to bring them forth. 

Just as the river has a will of its own, Caldera and Hart’s, Desert Flow blooms with synergy, once we allow, as did Charlotte Hart, his beautiful colors and widely varying shapes to open the door to our inner lives.

Michael Escoubas

MICHAEL ESCOUBAS REVIEWS HAYLEY AND THE HOT FLASHES BY J.J. FERRER

Hayley and the Hot Flashes by Jayne Jaudon Ferrer. 294 pages. Small Town Girl Publishing. ISBN: 978-1-7378411-5-9 To Order: https://bookshop.org/p/books/hayley-and-the-hot-flashes-jayne-jaudon-ferrer/18537319?ean=9781737841159

“You are, frankly, my only reason for living, Miss Swift.” This line stopped me cold. Already, held hostage by characters wearing such monikers as “Bubba,” “Tipsy,” “C.J.” “Rhett,” and “Suzette,” I had to find out more.

But wait . . . let’s back up for a moment. Hayley and the Hot Flashes, by Jayne Jaudon Ferrer (think actor and entertainer, Jose Ferrer, no relation) is her first full length novel. This delightfully entertaining work will give readers the answer, not only to the above-noted quote, (the whys and wherefores), but will even offer some wise advice about living life to the full.

First off, put yourself in Hayley Swift’s place. Once on top of the entertainment world and the country music charts, she’s now facing twin challenges of advancing age and professional irrelevance. No one wants her. No one needs her. Her career, her life, needs a jump start. What could former superstar Hayley Swift do to recover her past iconic life?

Ferrer is a down-to-earth writer. She writes about real life. Who among us has not lived in Hayley’s shoes? (Adjusted, of course, to individual circumstances). Who among has not stood with Hayley, at Robert Frost’s crossroads in “The Road Not Taken”? That fateful junction, where . . .

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth . . .

Indeed, at this point, Hayley feels like the name of her former band, Road Kill. It seems that somewhere in the distant past, Nashville  talent scouts offered Hayley a contract.  First crossroad: Hayley signed and left her four backup singers  (”The Girls Next Door,” soon to be, the “Hot Flashes”) behind. Later, Hayley is heard to say, “Isn’t it funny? When I worked here,  (at a small-time ice cream shop, the Dairy Dip) all I could think  about was leaving. Then when I left, for a long time, all I could  think about was coming back. I guess we never value our treasures  till we lose them, do we?” Second crossroad: What do we do in life, when it is time to deal  with the past and move on? The inner conflicts the Flashes go through is worth the price of the book. At last, however, they decide to reprise their group, go on the road and “swim with the big dogs.”

As Jaudon develops her story, she chronicles with gentle adroitness, the humanity of each major character. Flaws surface, memories of rejection must be dealt with. Meg Norris, a talented backup singer, recalls being blamed by her parents for consequences that happened, “in a blaze of hormones in the back seat of Ty Dorris’ vintage T-Bird.” Instead of supporting Meg at this critical life-juncture, a crossroads of sorts, her parents’ parting words were, “You stupid little slut! That boy was gonna start at fullback for Ole Miss!” Now, some thirty-five years later, Meg must make a life-changing choice. 

Over the landscape of time, this out-of-practice quintet of talent learn how to take risks. They hit the road in the rugged environs of country music, where popular acceptance is everything. Audiences must “like” you, moguls of the entertainment industry must see you as a “saleable” product; If DJs don’t “spin” your records, you don’t stand a chance of success. All of these are big “ifs” for the newly rejuvenated Hayley and the Hot Flashes.

This story is captivating. Jaudon’s characters are people you may know. They may be you! With that said, Jaudon is a skilled storyteller. She surprises . . . the moment I thought I had the next thing pegged; I was delighted to be wrong.

Third crossroad: Ask the right questions of life. Your reviewer posed the following question at the top: What could former superstar Hayley Swift do to recover her past iconic life?

But was this the right question? Jayne Jaudon Ferrer, has written a novel worth reading. It is funny. It is hard to put down. It has something to offer. In the end, the questions it poses and answers will make you stop and think.

Michael Escoubas 

NINA MILLER REVIEWS JOEL SAVISHINSKY’S  OUR ACHING BONES, OUR BREAKING HEARTS: POEMS ON AGING  

49 pages, $14.00, published by The Poetry Box (Portland, OR). ISBN 978-1-956285-33-8. https://thepoetrybox.com/bookstore/bones-hearts

As someone who worked in a hospice for many years, and who is now in her mid 80’s, I was especially moved by Joel Savishinsky’s book of poetry, Our Aching Bones, Our Breaking Hearts. This is a courageous collection about a subject many of us avoid:  our own frailty and mortality. Savishinsky writes with remarkable poetic skill about the wide array of losses we experience as we grow old, including aspects of our own functioning like memory and aching joints. In “Waking Up at 77” he notes

 

       “ . . . as soon as you change position,

       something will hurt, and you don’t

       want to know what that something

       is today.  Curiosity has become

       very discrete, and sleep the rarest

       of pleasures.”

                 

Savishinsky captures the loneliness of those who live on when their peers have died and they have moved into care facilities.   He also touches, with painful honesty, on his own history, as in “Maybe the Traffic Cop Calling Never Left Me.”  The impact of Covid in “Viral Load” is both a personal tragedy as well as a powerful political statement. 

      “The virus has done to us

      what we have done

 

      unto others, separated

      children and parents,

 

      spouses and lovers, put

      families and friends, barely

 

     beyond words, across the borders,

     sometimes seen or heard but

 

     never touched, their skin the home

     of our final hunger.”

 

But these are not only solemn poems.  Savishinsky has a wonderful sense of wit, as in the poem “Ambush.” After noting how a variety of plants, trees and bushes had distracted him during his attempts at mindfulness and concentration, he ends by confessing to the reader:  “But I admit I am a very bad Buddhist, so I will stop / here and spare us both that business about the lotus.” Many of his poems deserve to be read out loud, because he has clearly paid careful attention to the sound of words, as in “The Carpenter Bee” and “The Raker’s Progress.” And while I find it difficult to pick my favorite poem in this collection, I think “Cherry Tree at Midnight” touches me most deeply, in its tender description of a long marriage:

      “Now it does not immediately register whether

      the startled cry he hears from a deep dream was

      his or hers.  It has been so long they have shared

      the same fears, the same bed, swapped phantoms as

      a common endowment, making this legacy a currency

      with which to buy time, mortgage a future, pay for

      the lost rhymes and reasons of a doubled past.”

 

Our Aching B ones, Our Breaking Hearts is a wonderful collection, and I hope there will be more coming soon from this fine poet.

Nina Miller, a founder and director of both a crisis center and a community

hospice, is the author of the novel The Mother of Invention.

MICHAEL ESCOUBAS REVIEWS CRYSTAL FIRE BY TROCHIMCZYK & TALWAR

Crystal Fire: Poems of Joy and Wisdom, Editor: Maja Trochimczyk, Art by Ambika Talwar. 144 poems ~ 14 paintings ~ 188 pages,  Moonrise Press, October 2022, .  Poems by: Elżbieta Czajkowska, Joe DeCenzo, Mary Elliott,  Jeff Graham, Marlene Hitt, Frederick Livingston, Alice Pero, Allegra Silberstein, Jane Stuart, Ambika Talwar, Bory Thach, & the editor. ISBN 978-1-945938-58-0 (color paperback)  ISBN 978-1-945938-57-3 (color hardcover)  ISBN 978-1-945938-59-7 (eBook)   https://moonrisepress.com/crystal-fire-anthology.html

The Sublime Senses

Until the heart stops

it desires.

Until the mind stills;

it aspires;

Until the senses

take their leave

they deceive–

such dreams they weave …

I chose this poem by Ella Czajkowska, as the perfect lead-in to my review of Maja Trochimczyk’s stunning new anthology Crystal Fire: Poems of Joy and Wisdom. In two succinct quatrains Ella’s poem captures my emotions. While defining abstract terms such as Joy and Wisdom is like trying to nail jello to a wall, key words such as “desires” and “aspires” speak to me. I desire Joy; I aspire to Wisdom. Both words are beyond my reach.  Stanza two, hints that I must take a pause and allow the subtleties of the imagination to inform me. Through the superb efforts of 12 talented poets (8 women, 4 men) fresh light has been shed upon your reviewer’s quest. More on this later.

The book is illustrated by the multi-talented Ambika Talwar. One of her works precedes each featured poet’s contribution. I mentioned earlier that growing in Joy and Wisdom requires slowing down, taking a pause. Ambika’s paintings play a key role … they whisper Joy. Here is an example entitled “Quiet Rainfall”

Ambika Talwar, “Quiet Rainfall” ~ Acrylic / 1997

As I reflected on Ambika’s painting, paired with Marlene Hitt’s poems, something struck me: Painters and poets share similar concerns, namely, bringing Nature’s message of beauty and spirituality alive in people’s hearts. Da Vinci said it, Poets paint pictures with words; artists write poetry without words. Her poem, “Words from the Garden,” gives me a sense of “Quiet Rainfall,” here’s an excerpt:

Rose and Petunia, Lantana and Sage …

A passing breeze lifts my hair as I sit pondering

the beauty of the life that surrounds me.

Bushes with plain simple leafy life

display themselves and I speak their names,

Savor the sounds my lips make …

Hitt’s inflections and phrasings surround me with a sense of raindrops assuming (but not imposing) their rightful place in the world and even in human life. Could life be about that? Could it be that Joy and Wisdom have something to do with such perceptions? The poet's sensuous phrasings continue,

… Xylosma, Sweet Jessamine, Plumbago Blue

and Bougainvillea Magenta, Oleander, Fuschia,

bright yellow Palo Verde, iron wooded and thorny,

Wisteria surrounding it all to make me feel safe.

 Ambika Talwar, “Initiation” ~ Acrylic / 2003

While Trochimczyk’s goal, as editor, is not an ideal coordination between paintings and poems, the paintings do set a  mindfulness tone as readers step into each section. Frederick Livingston’s “Rainbows Dreaming,” brought me up short with a touch of Wisdom I had not considered before. I have italicized his Wisdom lines. The poem was inspired by Snoqualmie Pass, in Washington state.

Now I know

the blankness of snow

is only rainbows dreaming,

teaming with streaks of red paintbrush

little lanterns of columbine

tiger lilies prowl the scree slope

yellow asters multiply the sun

the hungry green of spring leaves

purple-blue lupine flooding the valley.

Who would ever know

these slopes were covered in snow

one mere moon ago?

What else have I not seen

and called “empty” in my ignorance?

What dreams within me may erupt

from thawing soil,

simply waiting for ripe moments

to answer the generosity of sunlight?   

                           

   

Ambika Talwar, "Dawn Lights," Acrylic

Before launching into the poems themselves, I was blessed by Maja Trochimczyk’s two and one-half page preface. This personally revealing summary of her motivations for giving birth to Crystal Fire is indispensable reading. In it she explains her use of "Crystal," and "Fire," in the title. Don't pass over this enlightened writing. I also appreciated reading the extended biographies of each poet at the end of the volume. Each contributor offers a unique take on the subject matter, thus adding a touch of virtuosity to the whole. In an age of vitriolic talk, of political and moral uncertainty, amid the dark clouds of Covid-19, Crystal Fire draws back the curtain on Love, Joy and yes, Wisdom.

As art and poetry work together, I’ve come to an ever-deeper appreciation of Wallace Stevens’ very practical saying, “Poetry [and painting] is a response to the daily necessity of getting the world right.” I can’t help thinking that Maja Trochimczyk, Ambika Talwar, and the talented contributors to Crystal Fire, would agree.

Michael Escoubas, 

reprinted from Quill & Parchment, April 2023

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The Poetry Letter (Online ISSN 2836-9394; Print ISSN 2836-9408) is a quarterly electronic publication, issued by the California State Poetry Society. Edited by Maja Trochimczyk since 2020 by Margaret Saine earlier.  The Poetry Letter is emailed and posted on the CSPS website, CaliforniaStatePoetrySociety.org. Sections of the Poetry Letter are also posted separately on the CSPS Blog, CaliforniaStatePoetrySociety.com – all poems in one post, all book reviews in another.