California Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Autumn 2026)
Edited by Maja Trochimczyk. Cover Art: Dance of Five Elements
watercolor on paper by Diane Lee Moomey (2012).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- I Could Really Use a Poem — Bill Baynes — 7
- Territories and Field — David Rosenheim — 8
- My Dog in Heaven — Cecil Morris — 9
- between curtain — Gregory Cecil — 9
- At the Natural History Museum — Pat Owen — 10
- Dinosaur Tracks in the Riverbed — Henry Hughes — 11
- Too Much Time in the City — Pamela Singer — 11
- Green — Andrew You — 12
- African Daisies — Byron Beynon — 12
- Canvas in Cornwall — Anna Maria Mickiewicz — 13
- Carcassonne — Byron Beynon — 13
- High Sierra — Michael Breuleux — 14
- Yellowstone — Henry Hughes — 15
- Communion — Charlie McCurdy — 16
- Detached Ken Fifer. — 17
- Narrow Roads Sarah Baker — 18
- laughing on a trail — Susan Rogers — 18
- Geography of Daylight — W.C. Gosnell — 19
- Hollow Hearts and Thimble Skins — Daniel N. Abukuri — 20
- Look — Greg Moglia — 21
- Things I Used to Love to Do — A. Dearborn Goldsmith — 22
- Mayhaps Bill Baynes — 22
- On Seeing Hair on X.com — Maja Trochimczyk — 23
- Déjà Vu / Ghosts — Jack Tessoro. — 24
- Haunted — Byron Beynon — 25
- Unlined — Dan Raphael — 26
- Uneasy Chrysanthemums — Roman Montemorano — 27
- Farewell of a Man — Anna Maria Mickiewicz — 28
- Zinnia — Rosemary Ybarra-Garcia — 28
- No — Patty Dickson Pieczka — 29
- Indian Summer Twilight — Joanne Jagoda — 30
- Going There — Alamgir Hashmi — 31
- The Depth — Anna Maria Mickiewicz — 32
- The Truth — W.C. Gosnell — 32
- It Is Enough — Valerie Martinez — 34
- Hay Noche Puesta — Lola Andrés — 34
- Night Has Fallen — Marta López-Luaces, tr.— 35
- Borrowed Wings — Robert Haas — 36
- The Great White Egret — Rosemary Ybarra-Garcia — 37
- late summer rapture — Susan Rogers — 37
- 12 Variations on the Moon Maja Trochimczyk 38
- Moon — Rebekkah Gomez — 39
- Cell Window — Robert Haas — 40
- At the New Moon — Bruce Heard — 41
- Renoir’s Apples — Andrea Potos — 41
- Azimuth — Marie C. Lecrivain — 42
- Silence — Charlie McCurdy — 42
- Silent Intervals — David Denny — 43
- walking and walking — Gregory Cecil — 43
- Soft Eyes — Pamela Singer — 44
- Water Drops — Bruce Heard — 44
- Even Now — Ziggy Edwards — 45
- seaside sensation — Susan Rogers — 45
- Wait a Second — Ken Holland — 46
- Love Your Enemies — David Dephy — 46
- Music in the Air — Steven Larry Klein — 47
- Piano Memories — W.C. Gosnell — 48
- Pulsings — Charlie McCurdy — 49
- Mudras — Bill Baynes — 50
- Be Yourself — Dennis Ross — 51
- Where I Am From — Cecil Morris — 52
- You Are Given What You Are — Sandra Irwin — 53
- Who I Am — Bruce Heard 54
- The Given — Andrea Potos 55
- COVER ART: Dance of Five Elements by Diane Lee Moomey, watercolor on paper, 2012
- Contributors in Alphabetical Order — 56
- CSPS Contest Opportunities — 56
- CSPS Newsbriefs 2026, No.3 by Maja Trochimczyk — 59
- Publishing Opportunities with CSPS — 61
- 2026 CSPS Donors, Patrons, and Membership — 63
- Membership Form — 64
Earth Fire Dance, watercolor by Diane Lee Moomey
EDITOR'S NOTE
Autumn is the time of harvest, time of fruition. In the third issue of the California Quarterly published in the year of the 250th anniversary of the U.S., readers find a fine crop of verse found on Submittable.com, submitted on our website, and mailed to our P.O. Box. Forty-eight poems have been written in California, six in New York, five in Pennsylvania, four in Massachusetts, three in Oregon, two in Texas, and one each in Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, New Mexico, and on an Air Force Base in Washington, D.C.
Poetry also came to us from friends in distant lands. Among six poems from the U.K, we find a tribute to African Daisies (Beynon), vivid visions of Carcassonne and Cornwall, and the unbearable memory of losing a son (Mickiewicz). From Ghana, we have a pean to Grandma’s raspberry (Abukuri). From Pakistan – an ocean-faring adventure, ending under “a different sky” (Hashmi). From Spain – a night vision with a translation (Lola Andrés and Marta López-Luaces, translator). Poems take us on adventures into the High Sierras (Breuleux), the Yellowstone (Hughes), and among dinosaur remains (Owen, Hughes).
Pamela Singer notices the harm of spending too much time in the city, Gosnell observes how the landscape encompasses its inhabitants. Poets say farewells in shocked disbelief (Pieczka), or melancholy reconciliation (Jagoda). They look at the moon (Gomez, Heard), even from a cell window (Haas). They admire animals soaring in the sky (Morris, Ybarra-Garcia), enjoy making music (Klein), and listening to sound bowls and silence (McCurdy, Denny). Within, they seek and find voices that are uniquely theirs, yet universal (Ross, Morris, Irwin, Heard). At the end, they are grateful for what is given (Potos).
I’m thankful for the inspired Dance of Five Elements that Diane Lee Moomey, a wonderful poet and artist, found for our cover. Since I enjoy classical music’s counterpoint, I wove this CQ issue into a tapestry of words, echoing and resonating in each other. Longer poems are interspersed with haiku by Gregory Cecil and Susan Rogers. In the polyphony of human experience, we overcome grief and become aware of cosmic unity: “streams become rivers / And the river becomes the sea” (Heard). And so, our journey continues, words flourish anew.
Maja Trochimczyk, Editor
ABOUT THE EDITOR
Maja Trochimczyk is a Californian poet, scholar, translator, photographer, and non-profit director from Poland. She published six 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) and Bright Skies (Moonrise Press, 2022). She also edited five poetry anthologies: Chopin with Cherries: A Tribute in Verse (2010); Meditations on Divine Names (2012), Grateful Conversations (2018, co-edited with Kathi Stafford), We Are Here: Village Poets Anthology (2020, co-edited with Marlene Hitt), and Crystal Fire. Poems of Joy and Wisdom (2022). 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, Hybrydy, Kritya, Lily Literary Review, Loch Raven Review, Lummox Journal, OccuPoetry, Quill and Parchment, Phantom Seed, Pirene's Fountain, poeticdiversity, Poezja Dzisiaj, Pisarze.pl, Poezja Dzisiaj, The Sage Trail, The Scream Online, San Diego Poetry Annual, San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, Spectrum. She was also featured in anthologies by Poets on Site, Southern California Haiku Study Group, and other collections. She edited the following California Quarterly issues in 2018-26: 44:4, 45:3, 46:4, 47:2, 48:1, 49:2, 49:4, 50:3, 51:3, 52:3. As a music historian, she published ten books of music and culture studies, most recently Paderewski Essays & Poems (2026). A two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, she 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 nominated Acting President of the CSPS in February 2019 and elected President in October 2019. She serves as Managing Editor of the California Quarterly, Editor of the Poetry Letter, and Annual Contest Chair. Her small publishing house, Moonrise Press, issued 36 books since 2008.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
DIANE LEE MOOMEY
After traveling long around the US and Canada making and showing art, composing and reading prose and poetry, Diane settled in Half Moon Bay, California, where she can hear the surf through her bedroom window. Working in clay, watercolor and collage has been an experience that both seeds and is seeded by, her poetic imagery. These do seem to arise from the same place. Sculptures over the years have been of porcelain, earthenware, polymer clay, paper and fiber. The theme that has woven itself throughout all these works has been energy expressed through the feminine form. Lover, mother, daughter, dancer, goddess, dakini, shaman, queen of each of the Five Elements, she-Buddha. Standing, sitting, dancing; with her lover and alone . . .
During the past decade or so, during which she has worked almost exclusively in watercolor, Diane continues to honor the feminine and to further explore the Five Elements and the ways in which they interact with each other. She is particularly intrigued by Portals, those mysterious doorways between dimensions that one encounters from time to time — and by occasional glimpses of the spirit beings that share our world with us. You may see her artwork at www.dianeleemoomeyart.com In addition to the themes mentioned above, much of Diane’s poetry focuses on memoir, presenting glimpses of the people and places that have been so important in her life. A regular reader at San Francisco Bay Area poetry venues, her words have appeared in The MacGuffin, Light, THINK, Mezzo Cammin, MacQueen’s Quinterly, PoeTalk, Caesura, Red Wheelbarrow, California Quarterly and others and has been nominated for three Pushcart prizes. She has received awards and honorable mentions for both art and poetry from Soul-Making Keats, the Ina Coolbrith Circle and the Coastal Arts League. She is also the author of four poetry collections, the third of which, Make For Higher Ground, is available from
Barefoot Muse Press. www.barefootmuse.com The newest collection, Sourdough, a poetry memoir, is available from Kelsay Books. www.kelsaybooks.com. Go to www.dianeleemoomeyart/poetry-portal.com to hear Diane read her poetry.
Diane also co-hosts a Zoom poetry series, “Coastside Poetry” on the second Tuesday evening of each month. (www.coastsidepoetry.org)
Dance of Five Elements by Diane Lee Moomey.
NEWSBRIEFS NO. 3 OF 2026
The great philosopher and scientist Aristotle supposedly said: “Change in all things is sweet”—but can we trust the ever-hallucinating AI that found this quote for me? Let’s call it “bitter-sweet” then, like chocolate. The CSPS Board of Directors and the California Quarterly Editors are in the midst of such “bitter-sweet” changes.
First, we are going to say our farewells to the pillar of this society, John F. Harrell, who will end his Board tenure of 35 years as CSPS Treasurer at the end of December 2026. He joined the Society in 1988, became its Treasurer in 1991 and served as the twelfth CSPS President (2012-19), concurrently being the Society’s Webmaster. So many hats!
These just a few of the different “lives” of our great Treasurer: his most important position is that of the Bishop of the Celtic Catholic Church for North America and Pacific Islands. He has been active since 1982 as Deacon, Diocesan Chancellor, Priest, Bishop Ordinary of the Diocese of the Isles of Saint Brendan, and Abbot of the Community of the Companions of God. Meanwhile, his engineering career, started in 1969 at Aerojet-General, took him through a variety of positions at Rockwell Collins, Northrop Grumman, and the Aerospace Corporation. How could one person have done so much?
Maybe because he is so well educated: B.Sc. in Mathematics and American Literature from Harvey Mudd College, M.A. in American Literature from Cal State Long Beach; STL, ThM, and DD degrees in Sacred Theology and Divinity from St. Columba School of Theology; and last but not least MBA/MBE, MSMIS, and PhD in Economics, Management and Information Science from Claremont Graduate University. A titan of learning!
John occupies a unique place among our 13 Presidents (Phillip Padellford, Romayne Dowd, Joyce Odam, Ellis Oveson, John F. Kerr, Gary Lagier, Ward Fulcher, Jack Fulbeck, Helen Shanley, Torre Houlgate-West, Kate Ozbirn, John Forrest Harrell, and Maja Trochimczyk) and 12 Treasurers (Jane Wolgemuth, Piche McBee, Eugene G. E. Botelho, Robert Knighton, Elaine Jenkins, Lawrence Jaffa, Margaret Cortes, Raymond Rose, Helen Shanley, Clara J. Koziolek, Jo-Ann Allee, and John Forrest Harrell).
Since we are celebrating the 250th Anniversary of the Birth of the U.S., this year, let me end this brief tribute to John with a poem from his book The Hand of the Midnight Moon (2017). Many thanks for your service!!!
The American Dream
1978
The yellow flame flickers lightly in my Uncle’s tomb
And dances with the sounds of crickets in the night.
In the shadows it throws on the walls of the rotunda
I see the shades of his friends and fellow soldiers.
They were strong, mighty warriors in their own time,
But here they walk only as adjuncts and lieutenants,
Assisting in the power and the presence of my Uncle.
Now, when the lamp lifted by his Lady has not light,
When her lovely, flowing robes are sullied and torn,
When every battle of the war is lost to politicians,
I come into the calming quiet and remember eternity.
In this place the vision of my Uncle is overwhelming
And the certainty and direction of his loving dreams
Are set in nature, to be the future for all mankind.
The shadows move the yellow flame with the whispers:
Let us be free, let us be free, Lord, let us be free.
John Forrest Harrell
Alas, we do not yet have another suitable candidate for the role of the CSPS Treasurer, maybe one of our subscribers would be willing to dedicate their leisure hours to the cause of poetry? Contact me at maja.trochimczyk@gmail.com.
Our second Board change is the resignation of Nicholas Skaldetvind from the position of CQ Editor, after editing four issues since 2022 (49/3, 50/2, 51/2, and 52/2 in 2026). His current pursuits, include working on Ph.D. degree at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, teaching, traveling, and publishing poems and book reviews in such venues as Tupelo Quarterly, or Trampolin Poetry.
Meanwhile, Ambika Talwar published two poems in Echoes of Freedom – A Nation in Many Voices edited by Debdoot Mukherjee and published by CRF, Convergence Research Foundation, Kolkata. This book commemorates India's Independence and was launched on 15 August 2026.
My features with three poems each appeared in Polish (Hybrydy journal in Poland), and English (Kritya journal in India). Six poems appeared in California Poets Part 10, on LAdige website edited by David Garyan.
In the time of harvest, let’s keep writing and using well our short time here!
Maja Trochimczyk, CSPS President
Mother of the World, watercolor by Diane Lee Moomey
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