California Quarterly vols. 50, 51, and 52 on display at Bolton Hall Museum
On Sunday, 25 October 2026, Village Poets of Sunland-Tujunga presented their first hybrid reading, of in-person poets and Zoom presentations from California Quarterly Vol. 52, No. 3 and CSPS Poetry Letter No. 3 of 2026. The event, held in the historic Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga, was divided into live and online segments, the first part hosted by Alice Pero, Artistic Director of Village Poets and the second part presented by Maja Trochimczyk, editor of the CQ Autumn 2026 issue. The reading was all the more notable that poets in-person arrived from Boston, Massachusetts (Anne Dearborn Goldsmith), and Sacramento, California (Bruce Heard). The online contingent also represented several distant states.
As the MC of Village Poets Reading, Joe DeCenzo reminded the audience about the history of the site, Los Angeles Historical Monument No. 2 built in 1913 for a utopian community of "Little Landers" who each had a little land to support themselves, while engaging in a variety of community events at the site. Then Alice Pero read some of her poems and introduced three Open Mic readers that customarily precede featured poets - pianist, composer and poet Adam West, Azalea Snail, and current Poet Laureate of the Foothills, Kathleen Travers.
Announcement of the reading in the Crescenta Valley Weekly, October 2026
Pero then introduced Dr Maja Trochimczyk, the sixth Poet Laureate, who had initiated the monthly Village Poets readings in 2010, working with the group of former poet laureates, like Marlene Hitt the first Poet Laureate and visionary promoter of poetry in the foothills. Maja resigned from that role in 2022, due to additional duties managing the CSPS and its publications. More information about the CQ 52/3: California State Poetry Society: Contents of California Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Autumn 2026) Edited by Maja Trochimczyk
Joe DeCenzo
In her introduction to the California Quarterly, Maja Trochimczyk reminded the audience that the California State Poetry Society, established in 1971, started publishing its quarterly in 1972, but it was initially called "CQ" - because the name was taken by a different poetry publication, issued by students at the University of California, Davis. That publication ceased to exist in 1999, and from that time, the California Quarterly took its full name. However, using the abbreviation of CQ was not too bad, since these letters in the Morse code mean "query" "calling to you" or "general call" to all listeners. These associations are quite appropriate for a literary publication seeking its authors and readers...
Alice Pero
Gordon Curzon was the first and only editor of the CQ in the first decade. Later a group of editors shared the responsibility, with each editor compiling their issue, selecting poems, suggesting artwork for cover. Among the former editors we should mention John Forrest Harrell (past President and Treasurer in 1991 to 2026), Margaret Saine, who brought many translations from German, Spanish, Italian and French to enrich the CQ with an international flavor, as well as artist-poet Maura Harvey, and poets Terry Ehret, Pearl Karrer, Nancy Cavers Dougherty, Nicholas Skaldetvind and others. Currently there are three editors, with Maja as Managing Editor, assisted by Konrad Tademar Wilk and Bory Thach. Guest editors are also invited and these recently included Deborah P Kolodji, Marlene Hitt, William Scott Galasso, and Beverly M. Collins.
After reading two of her own poems from the CQ and briefly discussing her editorial philosophy - of arranging poems thematically and seeking to end the journal on an uplifting, positive note, after "wandering through fire and water" of human experiences, Maja invited the distant guest poets: Anne Dearborn Goldsmith and Bruce Heard, Two sample poems of theirs are reproduced below.
THINGS I USED TO LOVE TO DO
To wake up
and there you were.
To write letters.
To vacuum and hear
the clink clink clink
of stuff.
To knit a tiny sweater.
To talk to a friend on the phone.
To read a novel.
To sit so close to you.
A. Dearborn Goldsmith, Hingham, Massachusetts
Anne Dearborn Goldsmith
Bruce Heard
WATER DROPS
Birthed by the heavens
I am born a drop
And join my brothers and sisters
Diving into the stream.
Streams become rivers
And the river becomes the sea
All of us drops losing our separateness
No longer believing
In the uniqueness of
You and me
Bruce Heard, Sacramento, California
The switch to online Zoom readers was smooth and uneventful, a rarity during such hybrid readings, thanks to the efforts of Joe DeCenzo, and assistance of Chris Justin. The poets presented their work in the order of publication, starting with a nature poem by frequent CQ contributor, David Rosenheim.
David Rosenheim
TERRITORIES AND FIELDS
The deep blue
black of your heart
ever-grasping for
that elusive hue
an exact indigo
after dusk night
rinsing the valleys
in its secret water
the sky vibrating
with G-d’s lasting hum
The fields of bounty
releasing the steam
of soil’s workday heat
the territories of
your soul pulsing
with the orange memory
of day day gone
day, aching to return
to the mirrors
of your dewy eyes
David Rosenheim, Pacifica, California
Michael Breuleux
HIGH SIERRA
The High Sierra stood shouldering sky
as we climbed the upper reaches of Washeshu Peak.
Storm had finished in the night,
the mountain kept its silence—
white over deep white,
not heavy “Sierra cement,”
but snow unbound, feathered, alive.
It rose to our knees, surged over buckles and leather,
a cold explosion with every turn,
as if the mountain itself exhaled.
We skied the trees where light fractured—
powder billowing like smoke over our skis.
Pines accepted our presence without complaint;
their dark patience learned long before us,
enduring this abundance.
From a bota we drank red wine—
thin and sharp and crisp;
she wiped her mouth with her glove,
we laughed; she smiled with her eyes;
the mountain would remember us,
and we would remember it.
Blue on black Steller’s Jays flashed in the pines,
brief like sparks struck from flint.
They watched us pass, then returned to their work,
while the Sierra, immense and untroubled,
kept its long gaze fixed beyond us.
Michael Breuleux, Los Gatos, California
Charlie McCurdy
SILENCE
Thich Nhat Hanh
many (h)aitches
in that name
one stands tall
asking to be heard
the rest
sit in silence
gently smiling
Charlie McCurdy, Glenside, Pennsylvania
Susan Rogers
late summer rapture
her eyes alive with caught
fire
she spreads her wings wide
—in honor of Jackie the Bald Eagle of Big Bear
Susan Rogers, Los Angeles, California
Roman Montemorano
UNEASY CHRYSANTHEMUMS
Generous ecstasy,
your perennial dry pink
bubbles the treetops.
No fun cracks
the knees of time.
Warblers wear orange throats
singing themselves safe for deer season
should the fall come.
Fire hydrants spray
the blood of the earth.
Ice melts into the street
cracking asphalt
according water whim.
The excess crows shape destruction
for entropy’s convenience.
Things tear apart
the area lies clear.
Furrow a debit brow
oxygenate the bank lobby.
Anachronisms stream from the radio
regarding written words the worst
unconscious kinds. Continue! Never less!
Rust blooms the edge of this pizza.
You know what this I sing.
O This! O gentle incarnation,
double your overhead.
Make sure to mark
with no permanent ink.
Roman Montemorano, Oahkland, California
Patty Dickson Pieczka
NO
The wind was never meant to stop,
cold, stiff, unmoving,
unable to whisper through leaves,
to tell ancient secrets
for birds to repeat.
How could earth rotate backward
like this, trees breaking loose
and falling into red sky,
branches’ claws scraping
the brick walls of this funeral home?
How are my feet still attached
to this floor, while the ceiling whirls,
walls waver, my heart falls out
and splatters onto bone-cold tiles?
How could you be laid out here
on this slab?
Patty Dickson Pieczka, Carbondale, Illinois
Rebekkah Gomez
MOON
The Moon
I do not care
when the sun will rise
It does not phase me
When it sets.
I am not proud
when it boasts its colors
Its height does not impress.
I am fond of the Moon,
the way it shines in the night.
How it beckons every Wolf,
to cry in its might.
Rebekkah Gomez, Menifee, California
Ken Holland
WAIT A SECOND
Clocks are best heard when they’re bleeding out time.
Though time itself has no sound. No moving parts.
It’s strange we’ve created a machine that takes time
into its hands and moves by way of a wheel
while time itself is quite content to stand on its own,
to stand perpetually still.
Ken Holland, Fishkill, New York
At the end of the CQ presentation, Maja Trochimczyk read an inspirational poem by Dennis Ross:
Maja Trochimczyk
BE YOURSELF
Ignore all the grasping hands
and all the incessant voices
pushing you into a cozy grave,
an acceptable slot, just like theirs.
Be yourself, ignore the demands.
You are fine exactly as you are,
following your own path through
a wonderland of your own creation.
Ignore the concrete sidewalks
and highways where others troop along
eyes straight ahead, following
their like-minded mob in a trance.
Go be an inventor, a shaman, a ballet
dancer, anything that moves you.
Your world will open like a flower
unlike any other, authentic and true.
Dennis Ross, Ames, Iowa
In addition to poets from the California Quarterly, the reading also presented two featured poets from the CSPS Poetry Letter No. 3 of 2026, Eric Oswald (Zoom) and Joe DeCenzo (live). Oswald read his haiku transformed into haiga by Russian artist Daria Valevskaya. DeCenzo presented a selection from his feature.
BEAUTY AT THE BARRE
Small cloud of rosin dust
Around a battered wooden box
Rises beauty from hellish pain
A half-used roll of KT tape
Supports the inflamed hamstring
Cracking calluses, the only shield
For a bloody sock
Blisters ripped of skin
Plié - tendu
Plié - tendu
From 5:00 am until the school bell rings
Torment to the limbs
Aching, soreness, spasms, cramps
Tedium at the barre building
Strength, alignment, balance, beauty
Relevé - en pointe
Relevé - en pointe
Body dysmorphia, eating disorders
Stay thin, stay thin
Keep your fingers from your throat
Need it be this ugly
To reach the height of grace?
The x-rays say you’re ready
Determination leads the charge
Bind reptilian feet
In satin covered toe shoes
Sauté - en pointe
6 inches of elegance
The added line from hip to toe
16 years of training
For the Black Swan pas de deux
Joe DeCenzo, Los Angeles, California
Joe DeCenzo
Bolton Hall Museum, Tujunga.
PHOTOS BY Alice Pero and Maja Trochimczyk
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