Contents of California Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Autumn 2026) Edited by Maja Trochimczyk

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 - her second, after Vol. 48, No. 1 of 2022. 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 at Poetry Reading, Booksellers Club, Warsaw, Poland, June 2024

 

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 F. Harrell, Bishop of Celtic Catholic Church.

Photo: Pamela Harrell.

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

Contents of California Quarterly Vol. 49 No. 4 (Winter 2023), Edited by Maja Trochimczyk

California Quarterly, Volume 49, Number 4

Winter 2023, Edited by Maja Trochimczyk, Cover Art: Marsden Hartley

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Earthquake Weather — Madeleine Lamm 7

Holding On —  Allegra Silberstein 8

Eating Poetry —  rg cantalupo 9

The Irish Rain —  Owen O’Sullivan 10

Outside, Tonight —  Jane Stuart 10

Rain and Chopin    —   David Sapp 11

Beethoven’s Tuning Fork  — Byron Beynon 12

During Music —  Kathryn Howd Machan 12

In the Starry Dynamo —  Ed Meek 14

Snowshoe — Allison Burris 15

Winters    — Linden Van Vert 15

North  —  Madeleine Lamm 16

Northern Night  — David Luisi 16

The Snow Lotus  — Maja Trochimczyk 17

Unbelonging —  C.M. Rivers 18

Learning to Pray  —  Carlo DiOrio 19

White Mountain  — Dana J. Graef 20

Roadrunner’s Prayer   —  Bren Ohta 20

Dance on Wire  — Beverly M. Collins 22

Wondering about God  —  Allegra Silberstein 23

Aurelius at the Pedro Point Car Park —   David Rosenheim 24

The Night We Cried in the Theater  — Allison Burris 25

Now    —   W. C. Gosnell 26

In Each Other, We Are the Complete Version of Ourselves — Phillip Jason 27

Black  —  rg cantalupo 28

Postcard —  Madeleine Lamm 29

Slow Waves   — Nicholas Skaldetvind 30

The Sea and I  — Emilio Gomez 31

Sound Is the Ocean   —   Karin Charlotte 32

Beach Sand   —   Arlene Downing-Yaconelli 33

The Thousand of Precise Things —   Vivian Underhill 34

Flight Pattern —  C.M. Rivers 35

Moment of Contact   — Emma Ashley 36

all the light I see —   Susan Rogers 36

Tilt —    Jennifer M Phillips 37

Tightening Laces   —  Iwo Drury 38

Road Story   — Emma Ashley 39

My Mother’s —  Abie Irabor 40

Just Like Mother   — Maura Harvey 41

Child   —   Eliot Cardinaux 42

& The Song Goes On, Unsinging Everything    —   Eliot Cardinaux 43

Sunset —  Mary Elliott 44

Quantum Entanglement —  Mark G. Hammerschick 44

Waxing and Waning   —  Phillip Jason 46

Petition —  Jayne Jaudon Ferrer 47

Dream —  Marlene Hitt 48

A Collection of Dreams —  Michael Fraley 48

Falling Snowdrops, Dancing Rain —  Jane Stuart 49

The Night Heron —   Jennifer M Phillips 50

Embroidery  —  Maura Harvey 51

Ascending   —  W.C. Gosnell     52

By the Incubator —  Jane Stuart 53

Message —   Alessio Zanelli 53

Winners of 36th Poetry Contest 54

180º Transitions Sharon Chmielarz 55

Old People are Such a Drag Claire Scott 56

Badassery Susan Wolbarst 57

Call Me Shahed Mark G. Hammerschick 59

Cover Art: Popocatepetl, Spirited Morning—Mexico by Marsden Hartley (1877-1943). Oil on board, 25x29 in. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Sam Rose and Julie Walters, 1932

  Contributors in Alphabetical Order                                              60 

  CSPS Contest Opportunities                                                        60  

  CSPS Newsbriefs 2023, No. 4 by Maja Trochimczyk                 62       

  Publishing Opportunities with CSPS                                           65 

  2022 CSPS Donors, Patrons, and Membership                           66 

  CSPS Membership Form                                                        68       

Popocatepetl, Spirited Morning—Mexico by Marsden Hartley (1877-1943). Oil on board, 25x29 in. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Sam Rose and Julie Walters, 1932

 EDITOR'S NOTE

“O szyby deszcz dzwoni, 

deszcz dzwoni jesienny 

 I pluszcze jednaki, 

miarowy niezmienny...” 

                                                                                (Leopold Staff, Deszcz Jesienny)

In Leopold Staff’s poem I memorized at school, the onomatopoeia of “sh” and “ch” sounds (“sz” and “cz” in Polish) illustrates the sound of rain. I do not know how to translate it into English while keeping the sound, the rhythm, and the meaning intact. It is difficult to make transition from one language to the next… 

Why do we love or hate rain? There are several rain poems in this issue—by serendipity, perhaps. In northern countries, when drizzle falls too often from gray, overcast skies, rain is associated with melancholy, sorrow, and depression (O’Sullivan, Sapp, and Beynon). It became a stereotype. Just think of Disney movies, when the heroine starts to cry… 

In hot, desert countries, rain brings with it blessings of food, life, and love (Rosenheim, Skaldetvind, Stuart). What about snow, then? A blessing or a curse, depending on how much snow falls, for how long. Under the northern lights, it is a view to behold (Luisi). In Chinese movies snowflakes caught in lovers’ hands signify the abundance of affection. In northern countries, we have the “White Christmas” – though the event giving rise to this holiday took place in the desert, under a palm tree. 

What matters is the celebration of “now” – as in the poem by W.C. Gosnell, or The Night Heron by Jennifer M Phillips: “Open your fist. There is nothing to grasp.” Phillip Jason wisely advises the reader that all experiences are meant to “turn you into good.” Yes, we should cherish our days “without thorns” (Jane Stuart), when stars blink in Morse Code that “nothing is over” (Zanelli) and angels make “you sing / And sing and sing / Like a joyful child.” 

During winter holidays, whether skiing, cooking, or wrapping gifts, we become like children, engrossed in the moment, watching a blue balloon, “rising into a sky” (Machan). If we cannot let go of sorrow, we may find solace in dreams (Hitt, Fraley), or prayer (Silberstein, DiOrio). Per Quantum Entanglement (Hammerschick), we are all One, anyway…

In addition to poems that moved me, this issue presents the winners of the 36th Annual Poetry Contest. It is clear that the taste of the Contest Judge, Anna Maria Mickiewicz, is markedly different from mine. This diversity is a gift to be cherished.

Maja Trochimczyk California Quarterly

Los Angeles, California Volume 49, Number 4

Marsden Hartley, Yliaster (Paracelsus), 1932, oil on paperboard mounted on particleboard, 25 1⁄4 x 28 1⁄2 in. (64.1 x 72.4 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program and by George Frederick Watts and Mrs. James Lowndes, 1988.53

CSPS NEWSBRIEFS 2023, NO. 4, WINTER 2023*

We are pleased to present the four winners of the 2023 Annual Contest, poems by Sharon Chmielarz (first prize), Susan Wolbarst and Claire Scott (two equivalent second prizes) and Mark G. Hammerschick (third prize). Two Honorary Mentions are by Mark G. Hammerschick and rg cantalupo,  These have also been placed in this issue. Other Honorary Mentions will be published in the next CQ in the spring (Claire Scott, Christine Horner, rg cantalupo), and in the Poetry Letter (Gurupreet K. Khalsa). The final of these poems is too long for publication in the CQ, exceeding its allowable line limits. Congratulations to all the winners! The awarded poems were selected by the contest judge Anna Maria Mickiewicz of London, England from nearly 200 submissions. She liked the quality of the submitted poems so much that she thought it would be good to publish more than just a few in an anthology. Thank you, Ms. Mickiewicz, for your hard work, and special thanks to all the poets who submitted their work. I included some of these submissions in this CQ as well.

FIRST PRIZE:  "180º Transitions" by Sharon Chmielarz

TWO EQUIVALENT SECOND PRIZES, in no particular order: 

"Old People are Such a Drag" by Claire Scott

"Badassery" by Susan Wolbarst 

THIRD PRIZE: "Call me Shahed" by Mark G. Hammerschick

HONORARY MENTIONS

1. “God is Depressed Again” by Claire Scott 

2. “Wandering Brume to Sparks” by Gurupreet K. Khalsa

3. “Quantum Entanglement” by Mark G. Hammerschick

4. “About Spring” by Christine Horner

5. “Black” by rg cantalupo

6. “Einstein” by rg cantalupo

         The cover features a painting by an American painter Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) depicting a volcano in Mexico shrouded by clouds. Entitled Popocatepetl, Spirited Morning—Mexico, this oil painting is found in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C.. Recognized as the first great American Modernist painter, Hartley was  born in Maine and studied painting in Cleveland and New York. He was exposed to European modernists in Paris and Berlin. In his spiritual approach to art, Hartley was inspired     by transcendentalist philosophy of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

         In 2023, the CSPS holds its Elections of Officers. The results will not be known before the printing of this journal. I am glad that all currently serving officers agreed to extend their terms. Thank you very much for your service and multiple contributions to the Society.  The candidates for officers are as follows: Maja Trochimczyk (President), Richard Modiano (Vice President, Communications), Richard Deets (Vice President, Membership), John F. Harrell (Treasurer), and Ambika Talwar (Secretary).  Ballots were sent out and are now being collected.

         Meanwhile our Editorial Board of the California Quarterly has changed. Maura Harvey resigned from her role as Editor while remaining on the CSPS Board as a Director. She is focusing on publication of a book of her poetry and art. We are truly grateful for her many years of service. In her place, Nicholas Skaldetvind joined the Editorial Board after serving as Guest Editor for CQ 49:3. Paul Schreiber commented: “I was impressed with the wonderful weave of local, Californian, subjects and wide-reaching international voices. Themes and poetic forms ranged impressively so that I felt like I was speaking with a truly vital colloquy of fellow poet-travelers.” Anthony Caleshu observed: “Nicholas Skaldetvind has put together an issue which captures our zeitgeist, an international collection of poets from across the US and Europe which ‘places’ poems in each author’s location (if only for the writing of the poem); it ties our geography to our humanity in unique ways.” John F. Harrell commented about the Quarterly: “Outstanding issue! It's good to see the next generation of poets achieving such high quality in their work.” Ambika Talwar praised the Guest Editor: “I appreciate his experience, scholarship, and maturity.” 

          For the Spring 2024 issue, the Board approved Beverly M. Collins as Guest Editor. This volunteering position means quite a serious time commitment. The Editor is solely responsible for selecting and arranging poems, communications with poets, and providing the Managing Editor with the draft journal, accompanied by lists of addresses and emails for all poets so they can be notified and receive their printed copies.

            The editors of the California Quarterly Volume 49 nominated the following poems and poets to Pushcart Prize for Best of the Small Presses 2023. From No. 1: “In the Kaleidoscope of Forgotten Things” by Dianne DeCillis and “Passion” by Livingston Rossmoor. From No. 2: “The Silence of the Common Nighthawk” by John Schneider. From No. 3: “Isolation Songs” by Karla Kelsey and Anamnesis by Anthony Caleshu. From No: 4: “Quantum Entanglement” by Mark G. Hammerschick. We are grateful to have so many astounding poems to select from.    

          The CSPS Board of Directors voted to increase the CSPS Membership Dues for 2024: Individual Membership (Domestic) from $40 to $45 and Individual Membership (International) from $60 to $65. At the same time, the institutional dues remained unchanged. This is to account for recent increases in the costs of printing and shipping the journal.

The Poetry Letter No. 3 of 2023 featured poems of Alice Pero, Chair of Monthly Poetry Contests since 2020; Nicholas Skaldetvind, who guest-edited the Fall 2023 issue of the CQ and was invited to join the CQ Editorial Board; Frank Iosue, who served as the Judge for our 2022 Annual Poetry Contest, and Beverly M. Collins. Three book reviews presented Distance by Deborah P Kolodji and Mariko Kitakubo (reviewed by William Scott Galasso) and Shimmer: An Ekphrastic Poetry Collection by Paulette Demers Turco, reviewed by Michael Escoubas, who also reviewed Gathering Sunlight by Silvia Scheibli & Patty Dickson Pieczka. Our illustrators were photographers Beverly M. Collins (whom we know as a poet often published in the CQ and elsewhere), and Iga Supernak, both based in the Los Angeles area.           

            CSPS Member News. As Poet Laureate of Sunland/Tujunga Alice Pero was asked by Artists for a Better World to write a poem for the First Responders which she presented to police and firefighters on The National Night Out. She also read for the McGroarty Arts Center 100^th Anniversary. In October, Alice received an award from Toast Masters for her service to the community. 

    Poets and artists, Beverly M. Collins and Ambika Talwar were recently featured at Village Poets Monthly Readings at Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga. Poet, real estate broker and survivor, Ed Rosenthal, who was rescued after over six days of being lost in the desert, was recently interviewed by BBC Outlook and NOISER podcasts in the U.K. He wrote Salvation Canyon: A True Story of Desert Survival in Joshua Tree and a volume of poems inspired by his ordeal, The Desert Hat. 

            Maja Trochimczyk published a series of haiku in the 2023 anthology of Southern California Haiku Study Group, entitled A Taste of Sunlight and edited by CSPS member, Kath Abela Wilson. The anthology featured several other CSPS members: William Scott Galasso, Deborah P Kolodji, and Ambika Talwar.  Trochimczyk’s “A Chromosome Ballad," appeared in Academic Questions, Spring 2023. She also wrote a 428-page history book, Celebrating Modjeska in California: A History of the Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club, supported with a grant from the Polish government. That’s all the news I collected this time… Send us more news about your publications, awards and poetic successes!

 ~ Maja Trochimczyk, CSPS President

Blueberry Highway, Dogtown by Marsden Hartley, 1931, High Museum of Art. Wikimedia Commons.