California Quarterly, Vol. 51, No. 1, Spring 2025, Edited by r.g.cantalupo and Maja Trochimczyk
Cover image " Whispers of Passion" by Kasia Czerpak-Weglinski,
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Of the Nightwater — Casey Mills 7
Thaw — Shelley Getten 8
Waiting for Magic — Doreen Beyer 9
Flow — Sandra Hughes 10
Overflow — Livio Farallo 11
You’ll Know When You Wake Up — Gregory Gourley 12
What We Did Not See — Donna L. Emerson 14
On these Long Silences — John Schneider 15
Hamlet in the Stars — Bill Vartnaw 16
Instructions for Waking Up — G. H. Mosson 16
The Currency of Childhood — Kathleen Travers 18
The Girl Who Talked to the Moon — Christine Candland 20
Holly Fully — Ellice Jeon 20
Pronunciation — David Blake 22
Foreword — Robert Hammond Dorsett 22
Above the Caldera of Crater Lake — Jiang Pu 23
Cats — Shelley Getten 24
Departures — Gloria Keeley 25
The Nature of Open Doors — John Schneider 26
Voice — Matthew J. Spireng 27
Small Flowers — Craig Harris 27
Old Roses – For 4 Voices — Richard Stokes 28
Threading a Needle — Matthew J. Spireng 29
trembling fingers... — Kelly Talbot 29
Alzheimer Archipelago — Gregory Gourley 30
My Mind Has Become a Sieve — Richard Stokes 31
Iris — Lynne Potts 32
An eye-catching… — Gregory Cecil 32
A Magical Pudding — W.C. Gosnell 33
Something of Value — Shelley Getten 34
Nine Years after Mom Died — Donna L. Emerson 35
Bananas — Gregory Gourley 36
The Whistling Kid — Anne Stone 37
Getting Through the Day — David Romanda 37
Contributors in Alphabetical Order 59
CSPS Contest Opportunities 60
CSPS Newsbriefs 2025, No. 1 by Maja Trochimczyk 62
Publishing Opportunities with CSPS 65
2024 CSPS Donors, Patrons, and Membership 66
Membership Form 68
EDITOR'S NOTE
As Managing Editor of the California
Quarterly, I select and invite guest editors. After Beverly M. Collins and
Marlene Hitt, I selected r.g. cantalupo, who came highly recommended by Alice
Pero, CSPS Monthly Contest Judge. Our cooperation resulted in this exquisite volume,
with some poems that reflect solely my taste.
Maja
Trochimczyk, CSPS President
I would be lying if I didn’t say editing this
edition wasn’t a difficult process. I hadn’t edited a journal for over thirty
years and so much had changed in the tastes and styles of most of the poetry
from the early 2000s to now. Even the process of submitting poems was so different.
Reading through batches of hard copy poems and hand-written intro letters was gone,
replaced by the more efficient Submittable with its rating system and
scoring-poems process. I can’t say I didn’t miss the older more tactile process
of tearing open brown envelopes and getting a sense of the poet behind the page
in the paper they used and their handwriting and even idiosyncrasies of line
breaks and fonts.
So
alas, I am an “old school” poet and my editorial choices are influenced by that
bias. I like “story” poems versus abstract utterances, and I like lyrical poems
versus poems that are less resonant or musical. I read through over 400 poems
for this edition and many good poems did not get accepted for one reason or
another. Overall, the poems I included, were poems I liked and enjoyed reading
three, four times. Matthew J. Spireng’s poem “Voice” is one such poem. Its
heroine, “went on to sing / her whole life, earned her way / singing, sang the
world over / for the United Nations, / brought her crystal tones / to those
buoyed by her voice, / those who rose with it so, for moments / at least, the
weight of the world / was lifted…” Or
this amazing poem by Kathleen Travers, “The Currency of Childhood” — “All grown
too tall, / we bartered time / for bold and surfeit kisses, / sacrifice as
legal tender. // And have spent years since / unable to count / all that has
passed, / all that we have lost / or spent in the losing.”
I have
been honored to have the task of editing so many good poems for this volume. It
has been a terrific learning process and a challenge I relished. I hope you
enjoy reading them as much as when I first read them.
ABOUT THE EDITORS
r.g.cantalupo is a poet, playwright, filmmaker, novelist, and director. His work has been published widely in literary journals in the United States, England, and Australia. He graduated from UC Santa Cruz where he studied under such luminaries as George Hitchcock, editor of Kayak, Gregory Bateson, and Norman O. Brown, and received his MFA in Poetry and Non-Fiction from Vermont College of the Fine Arts. His books of poetry include Involving Residence, No Thanks, Walking Water On Earth, The Art of Naming, Remembrances, and The Endurance: Journey To Worlds End (a lyric novel).
He is also the author of You Don’t Know Me, (a five book young adult series), The Light Where Shadows End, and The Shadows In Which We Rise, memoirs, American Patriot, Surviving Covid, and a number of plays and stage adaptations including the musical versions of The Giving Tree and Where The Wild Things Are. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of Stages in Santa Monica, a performing arts center.
He served in the 25th Infantry Division as an RTO, radio operator, for an infantry company from 1968-69 and received three purple hearts and a Bronze Star with a Combat V for Valor Under Fire.
Maja Trochimczyk is poet, music historian, publisher and non-profit director, since 2019 serving as CSPS President and since 2021 as Managing Editor of the California Quarterly.
NEWSBRIEFS 2025, NO. 1, SPRING 2025
California State Poetry Society announces its Monthly Contest Winners for the year 2024, selected by Alice Pero, Contest Judge.
JANUARY. Theme: Nature, Landscape
1st Prize: Colorado Smith, “SkyFire”
2nd Prize: Kathryn Schmeiser, “Last One Standing”
3rd Prize: Paula Appling, “Cognitive Dissonance”
FEBRUARY. Theme: Love
1st Prize: Richard T. Ringley, “The Parts of You I Cannot Name”
2nd Prize: Jeff Graham, “Nocturne 31”
MARCH. Theme: Open, No Subject
1st Prize: Sean McGrath, “Hunger for Eternity”
APRIL. Theme: Mythology, Dreams, Other Universes
1st Prize: Lillian Liu. “Sphinx Riddle”
2nd Prize: David Anderson, “The Next Eucatastrophe”
3rd Prize: Thomas Feeny, “Icarus”
MAY. Theme: Personification, Characters, Portraits
1st Prize, Thomas P. Feeny, “The Bolder Brother”
2nd Prize, Paula Appling, “Still Life”
JUNE. Theme: The Supernatural
1st Prize: Jane Stuart, “Into the Light”
JULY. Theme: Childhood, Memoirs
1st Prize: Carla Schick, "On the way to the library"
2nd Prize: Susan Florence, "Where Bach Takes Me"
AUGUST. Theme: Places, Poems of Location
1st Prize: Philip Newton, "Memphis"
2nd Prize: Michael Shoemaker, "Utah Scenic Haiku”
SEPTEMBER. Theme: Colors, Music, Dance
1st Prize: Carla Schick, “The Woman Artist Untethers Herself”
OCTOBER. Theme: Humor/Satire
1st Prize: Richard Ringley, "Sixty Is the New Six"
2nd Prize: Jane Stuart, "A Merry Mix-Up"
NOVEMBER. Theme: Family, Friendship, Relationship
1st Prize: Ellice Jeon, “A Welcome Guest”
DECEMBER. Theme: Back Down to Earth (Time, Seasons)
1st Prize: Kathryn Schmeiser, “The Magic Hour”
Congratulations to all the winners! The poems from January through July 2024 were published in the Poetry Letter No. 3 of 2024; while the ones starting in August will appear in the second issue of the Poetry Letter of 2025.
Alice Pero shared the following note from Ellice Jeon after her award: “Dear Ms. Pero, Oh, my God! I couldn't believe I won 1st prize in the California State Poetry contest. A few days ago, I saw the news that my Altadena store had burned to the ground. Today, when I heard this good news, will be remembered as the best day of my life. I never imagined receiving such an award in CSPS in the US. This news meant a lot to me and gave me a lot of comfort.” I’m pleased to note that a poem by Ellice Jeon is also included in the current issue of the California Quarterly.
The 38th Annual Poetry Contest is open to all poets, whether or not they are members of the CSPS. California poet, Robert Hammond Dorsett will serve as Contest Judge this year. He studied Chinese at the Yale-in-China Program in Hong Kong; he later received his M.D. degree from the State University of New York and completed his training in pediatrics at Cornell University. An author of several books of poems and translations, he holds an M.F.A. degree from New York University (roberthammonddorsett.com).
Poems must be postmarked or uploaded to our website or from March 1st through June 30th. Reading fees for all entries, domestic or international, are $3.00 per poem for members (of CSPS or other state poetry societies affiliated with NSPS) and $6.00 per poem for non-members. There is an 80-line (two page) limit for each poem. Winning entries will be announced on our website, blog, in the CSPS Newsbriefs in September 2025, and published in the fourth issue of the CQ in December 2025. Submission information is below.
The cover of
this issue of the California Quarterly is by Polish American painter, Kasia Czerpak-Węgliński
who is also interested in installations and printmaking. Czerpak-Węgliński was
born in Kraków (1962) and graduated from the Department of Printmaking and
Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, the Czech Republic. She has
been living and working in the U.S. since 1989. The artist is also a lecturer, having
worked with the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (1992–1997) and UCLA (since
2010). She has participated in over 60 group and 13 individual exhibitions in
the United States, Asia, and Europe. Her works can be found in many public and
private collections all over the world. She is a member of the KrakArt Group in
Los Angeles.
In the
past two issues of the CSPS Poetry Letters, we featured the winners
of monthly contests through July 2024 (No. 2) and poets Marlene Hitt, Margaret
Saine, Joe DeCenzo and Richard Deets (No. 4). Our featured artists were Maria
Wollenberg-Kluza (paintings in No. 3) and Margaret Saine (photographs in No. 4).
Personalia:
Since December
2024, some of Nicholas Skaldetvind’s artworks have appeared in Ghost
City Review and The Sandy River Review; his writing in Berkeley
Poetry Review, Tupelo Quarterly, World Literature Today, Film Obsessive,
and the BSA’s Beat Spotlight; forthcoming writings will feature in the
spring issues of Eunoia Review and The Journal of Midwest Modern
Language Association.
Ambika Talwar's poetry appears in Windblown
Landscapes, an anthology focused on the Tinai form of Dravidian aesthetics
and "What's the Fuss?" (a humour anthology). She is published in CQ:
Vol. 50 Number 2 & 4. She earned first prize for poetry by the Rabindranath
Tagore Awards International (2024 & 2025). She is widely published in the
We Literary Community's online poetry collections and was awarded the We
Illumination Award for Poetry, Participation, Inspiration and for being a
Phenomenal Woman by WE Literary Dynamic (Fall 2024). She also earned the
Poiesis Bharat Award for Excellence in Literature (2022-2025) for short story
submissions.
Your CSPS
President’s was featured at two poetry readings in
Warsaw, Poland – in June at an event organized by the Union of Polish Writers
Abroad and in September with composer Hanna Kulenty. Four haiku appeared in the 2024 Anthology of Southern California Haiku Study Group, Kelp Forest. Two Polish poems were selected by Anna Maria Mickiewicz for the portal Pisarze.pl. Since 2010, my Poetry Laurels blog had 374,680 readers. Poems
from The Rainy Bread appeared in Polish as Deszczowy Chleb
(2024). I read these poems at a conference at the Sybir Memorial Museum in
Bialystok, Poland, in September 2024. The site commemorates lives lost by millions
of Poles exiled from or murdered by Soviets in the eastern borderlands of
Poland, now encompassing the countries of Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. There
were no reparations for any victims. There is no way back. All we can do is
remember.
Maja Trochimczyk, CSPS President
