Poetry Letter No. 2 of 2024 - Summer, Part 1 - Featured Poets Sharmagne Leland-St. John and Mary Torregrossa

Hanna Kulenty, “Oczy Grawitacyjne Nr 4” acrylic/canvas, 2023

The CSPS Poetry Letter No. 2 of 2024 features eminent  California poets Sharmagne Leland-St. John  (a poet, photographer, author of many books, and the publisher of the Quill and Parchment monthly online poetry journal) and Mary Torregrossa, a teacher and story-teller. I am honored to have known both poets personally since I started being active as a poet in California in 2007. Their lists of accomplishments ae extensive. Interestingly, they both have something in their background that I do not have: deep roots on this continent.  

I’m a recent immigrant, having moved to Canada in 1988 and to California in 1996. I only became a U.S. citizen in 2009! In contrast, Sharmagne is a “lineal descendant” of The Confederated Colville Tribe of Nespelem, Washington, while Mary was born in the state of Rhode Island (which is not an island!) and teaches English as a Second Language. They both write in English – as I do, though it is not my native tongue, not even my second language – that place is taken by Russian. Their English is definitely more “native” than mine, yet we all have the courage to do what we love the most: create poems in English.

The courage to create is also obvious in the story of our artist, Hanna Kulenty, a noted Polish composer of large scale “surrealist music” for symphony orchestras or chamber ensembles. She recently started painting on canvas, returning to her passion for painting during her college years. Her unusual  artworks remind me of her music (listen to samples on her website, https://www.hannakulenty.com). They should remind our readers of the fact that all  artists were once “self-taught” and did not need diplomas and academic credentials to create great art.  I was once confronted in Poland, where the “credentials and diplomas” are of great importance, with the accusation that I did not have a right to write poetry for I did not have a degree in literature. It was, and is, amusing – think, how many “pedigreed” people are really useless? 

The Poetry Letter No. 2 is rounded up by four reviews of poetry books written by Kathy Lohrum Cotton, Ann Fox Chandonnet, Anna Maria Mickiewicz and Deborah P Kolodji. The reviewers are Michael Escoubas,  Zbigniew Mirosławski, and Deborah Fiedler Apraku. These reviews will be posted in the second part of the Poetry Letter No. 2, Summer 2024. 

~ Maja Trochimczyk, CSPS President

FEATURED POET SHARMAGNE LELAND-ST. JOHN 

Sharmagne is a Native American performance poet, 22 time Pushcart Prize nominee, concert performer, artist and filmmaker. She divides her time between her home in Pasadena, California, "Brown Hackle Lodge", her fly fishing Lodge/B&B, in the Pacific Northwest, her artist and writer's retreat in Taos, New Mexico and a villetta in Tuscany.  Her poetry books include Unsung Songs,  Silver Tears and Time, Contingencies, La Kalima, A Raga for George Harrison, Images: A Collection of Ekphrastic Poetry and The Trip, a richly illustrated children’s book. She is co-author of Designing Movies: Portrait of a Hollywood Artist. Editor of Cradle Songs: An Anthology of Poems on Motherhood, which won the 2013 International Book Award. Her poetry and short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies world wide. Sharmagne’s poetry is being taught in literature classes and Native American Studies courses in colleges, universities and prep schools across the nation. 

WHITE ORCHIDS

 

Ingrid loves white orchids
Dresses cut from tulle
The Ballet Russe
And lives by the golden rule

Pink champagne
And strappy red shoes
Prefers chamber music
Over a man who sings the blues

Breakfast in bed
On a silver tray
Supper at midnight
Après le ballet

Cocktail parties
And fancy dress balls
Manet and Monet
Adorn her walls

A closet full of Balenciagas
Chanels and Diors
She loves cucumber sandwiches
And petits fours

Is bored by bridge
But enjoys backgammon
Rainbow trout
And wild caught salmon

Summers in the Hamptons
Winters in the Canaries
Easter in Venice
And chocolate strawberries

Prefers travel
To staying at home
Ingrid's life
Reads like a poem

 

 

 Sharmagne Leland-St. John

from IMAGES: A Collection of Ekphrastic Poetry

EL NORTE

El Norte.
A prayer upon her brown lips.

El Norte.
A dream growing like
plumeria blossoms from
empty chambers in
her heart.

In El Norte
she can make a decent wage.
Her children will not go to bed hungry.
She quits her job at the plantation,
kisses her children's warm cheeks
as they sleep;
says goodbye to Columbia.

The Rio Grande behind her,
she now mops my neighbours' floors,
scrubs their toilets
for ten bucks an hour.

By the time she pays rent for her room,
buys bus tokens, and junk food
there is little left to send home.
Her children grow up without her.
Abuelita sends black and white photographs.
The little one is still frail and thin.

El Norte
The Land of Milk and Honey–
The Promised Land he believes in.
He'll go on ahead,
send for his children one by one;
then his wife and the baby.

Under the sweltering
San Fernando Valley sun
he pushes the market basket
as he picks through
the neighbourhood trash;
for glass and aluminum
to recycle for pennies.
Surely his job teaching
the village children their ABCs
was better than this.

In the marketplace in El Salvador
his wife almost forgets she is married.
The man with the gold tooth
smiles at her as he wraps the fish
in newspaper–
adding an extra piece now and then.

She misses her husband,

but has nothing to confess to the priest
as he leans in closer
to hear her sins.

  

Sharmagne Leland-St. John, 

Pushcart Prize Nominee, 2012

          

Hanna Kulenty, “Muzyka Grawitacyjna Nr 1” – acrylic/canvas, 2023

, 

SHE DREAMS…

 

she lies down beside him 

her dreams projected 

on her forehead 

in monochrome

he sees her through 

sepia eyes.

 

she dreams 

ballerina dreams

she dreams of locomotives

and crashing waves

she dreams of footprints

vanishing like the prairie

she dreams of rain

she dreams of a lover.

 

she dreams he will

watch her forehead 

and know exactly what she wants 

she dreams of a tender  man 

his warm breath on the nape of her neck

she dreams of crickets

and a stranger with kiss-able lips

she dreams of archipelagos

 

he unbuttons every button 

on her blue silk blouse, slowly,

it falls from her shoulders 

and slips away

she wonders about moonbows 

she dreams of black roses

and he whispers softly as she sighs.

  

~ Sharmagne Leland-St. John

From  forthcoming book: The Song of Sparrow

 EVERYTHING I HAD WAS BLUE

the cotton dress I wore that day

the sapphire sky,

the train upon which I arrived

the river flowing past our little town

the periwinkles in the window box

my eyes, my mood, my muse

the curling smoke from your cigar

the willow plates upon the cupboard shelves

the hydrangea soap I used to bathe myself

somewhat out of tune

 

everything I had was blue

the taper’s flame

the ink inside my pen

my socks and shoes

the night

my rose tattoo       

the lacy camisole that slipped, 

drifted off my shoulders 

toward the floor

but did not fall

the moon

the Picasso print hanging on the bedroom wall

 

everything I had was blue

 

even the notepaper

upon which you wrote the words:

 “I love you” and "Goodbye"

 

~ Sharmagne Leland-St. John

Published in Altadena Poetry Review 2024

OH LIFE

Oh life
Where have you taken me
'Twas once I was your fair haired child
Now it seems I'm out of style
Oh life be gentle yet
There are things I can't forget
Like Autumn love without regret
When Autumn turned to winter
Mottled leaves in circles twirl
Inside the spirits of the girl
Whose arms were once around you
Love where have you gone
Just when I thought I'd found you

Snowflakes dance like feathers round my head
I cannot dream my dreams
In an empty bed
Life is for lovers
That's what you said
Then placed your soul inside me
But now that Winter's taken you from sleep
It seems there's nothing left to keep
You here beside me’

~ Sharmagne Leland-St. John

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sndVyPF_jUY&t=9s

Hanna Kulenty, "Muzyka Grawitacyjna Nr. 4" acrylic on canvas, 2023

EULOGY FOR HECTOR  PIETERSON, 1964-1976

 

He will not speak in syllables now
He will not utter a sound
in English, Xhosa, or Afrikaans

But he will speak volumes
through his martyrdom
this 13 year old,
this boy,
this child
who took a bloody stand
who took a bullet
from a white man’s hand

This young “coloured” boy
not black, mind you, but “coloured”
in a colour-conscious nation
of murderers and enslavers
who would massacre children
for the colour of their skin or
for speaking their mind

This boy who joined his
Soweto classmates
in a peaceful protest
to resist learning a language
no one wanted to teach,
let alone speak
this hated language
of their oppressors
no one wanted to learn
these words that would fall
from this child’s pink mouth
like boulders, not like
his native tongue, which fell

like smooth stones
washed by the river
these words.

His sister Antoinette
will never forget
she will always hold
in her memory
in her mind’s eye
the sight of him
limp and lifeless
on that fateful day
in the strong
young-man arms

of Mbuyisa Makhubo
weeping as he ran
weeping as he
raced against time
Hector’s red blood
staining his cover-alls
and his name
running toward the press car
towards the photographers
and journalists
who have made her brother famous
only in death
Mbuyisa Makhubo
who had to go into hiding
forced to flee his homeland
for helping
to try to save this child’s life

Hector’s voice clear
as he sang the hymn
Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika
he was one of many
but not the first child
to take a bullet

just the first to die
and then to celebrate
his only and most important
rite of passage

Death

Hector and Hastings Ndlovu
now rest in Avalon
side by side
and their voices echo
hollow
in our ears forever …

Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika

~ Sharmagne Leland-St. John

CONTINGENCIES

 

In Azcapotzalco

I remember mostly

their dark eyes,

their round, brown faces,

Mexican bowl haircuts,

and then

the outstretched, dirty palms

on the end of spindly arms,

tiny hands

with ragged fingernails.

 

In Welligama

they encircled us,

their dry, cracked lips, begging

for a twopence.

"One two piece, one two piece,"

they chanted,

clad mummy-like in rags,

gray from the mud of streets,

the filth of poverty,

their smiles engaging.

 

I have seen them in Cairo,

near the City of the Dead,

where the deceased "live" better

than the living,

hauntingly beautiful children,

maimed, crippled,

scarred

by their parents

in order to elicit pity,

hence silver and copper coins,

from the rich American tourists.

 

In Lima, in front of the Cathedral

which held the catafalques

and Pisarro's tomb,

a gypsy woman tried to hand me

a baby, pleading,

"Un regalo, un regalo."

As I reached out for "her gift,"

you held me back.

"Don't take it," you hissed.

"She'll run away."

 

I stood there,

in the shadow

of the basilica,

in sombre half-light,

in the cobbled streets

of this foreign city,

my barren heart,

my fallow womb

needing the baby,

 

But you pulled me away.

~ Sharmagne Leland-St. John

 

Hanna Kulenty, “Oczy Grawitacyjne Nr 2,” acrylic, 2023

I SAID COFFEE

I said coffee
I didn't say,
"would you
like to cup
my warm
soft breasts
in your
un-calloused,
long,
tapered,
ringless fingered
hands?"

I said coffee
I didn't say,
"would you
like to
run your tongue
along my neck
just below
my left ear-lobe?"

 

I said coffee
I didn't say,
"would you
like to
hold me
in your arms
and feel my heart
skip beats
as you press your
hard, lean body
up against mine
until I melt
into you
with desire?"

I said coffee
as we stood there
in the jasmine
scented night
my car door
like some modern day
bundling board
separating us,
protecting us
from ourselves
and lust

I said,
"would you
like to go for
a cup of coffee?"                
I didn't say,
"would you
like to brush
your lips
across mine
as you move
silently
to bury your face
in my long, silky,
raven black hair?"

But you said,
"I can't
I'm married
I can't trust myself
to be alone
with you."
So I looked you
dead in the eye
and repeated
"I said coffee"

 

    ~ Sharmagne Leland-St. John,

“I Said Coffee” was a Pushcart Prize Nominee in 2007

FEATURED POET: MARY TORREGROSSA

MARY E. TORREGROSSA, often noted as a storyteller, is more importantly a story-listener, a practice honed by her job as an ESL teacher in Southern California. Originally from Rhode Island, she blends images and experiences of both coasts into her poetry. Mary has facilitated poetry workshops, fund raisers, hosted poetry readings and participated in many poetry and arts community events as a poet and anti-racism activist. As a collage artist, Mary feels that assembling a collage of images has a natural similarity to assembling a poem. Her first chapbook, My Zocalo Heart, is published by Finishing Line Press. Poems appear in Bearing The Mask: Southwestern Persona Poems, in Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, in Voices From Leimert Park Redux, and Miju Poetry & Poetics: Korean Poets Society of America. Mary is a winner of the Arroyo Arts Collective Poetry In The Windows and named Newer Poet of Los Angeles XIV by the Los Angeles Poetry Festival. Other publications include The Altadena Poetry Review, the SoCal Haiku Study Group Anthology, and websites for Verse-Virtual, Ekphrastic Review and Dime Show Review.

OUR CEMETERY

 

has no cypress trees

 

no sundial, no overgrowth

of forest at its edge

 

Our cemetery has a chain link fence

a fanciful wrought iron arch

facing a busy street

 

Darkness does not descend

on this patch of sacred land

 

we have streetlights

 

There is no chapel, no stained

glass window, no map

on a pedestal

 

you will never lose your way

 

We are buried on an archipelago

of grass and gravestones

 

where small American flags

just seem to appear

each Memorial Day

 

The city grows up around us

a muffler shop, the Diamante Bar

Hong Kong-style Chinese Food to-go

 

and still we are laid down

 

Once in a while, a commuter

waiting at the red light notices

 

a freshly dug hole

and a wreath of flowers

 

 ~ Mary Torregrossa. Our Cemetery first appears 

in Wide Awake, Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, 2015

RAPPROCHEMENT

 

This might be my remedy

this amber signature of tea

set here before us in cups

of glass too hot to touch.

The scent of steeping

mint leaves drifts

redolent in my thoughts.

Like an aftershock

of the Sierra Madre,

I rattle silver teaspoons

into saucers, sit

clenching sugar cubes

in my back teeth

like Esther, or Kobra,

or Zahra might have

years ago or yesterday.

The tonic eases its way

into your explanation

infused with details

of the truth. I listen,

waiting for the tea to cool.

 

~ Mary Torregrossa. Rapprochement 

appears as Détente, My Zocalo Heart, 2018

Hanna Kulenty, “”Muzyka Grawitacyjna Nr 14” – acrylic on canvas, 2023.

NIGHT HERON

In flight, they tuck their heads

back against their shoulders.

I can name this bird that forages

the mudflats on tiptoe - evening

opportunist – it clenches crabs

and earthworms and little fish

in its hard black beak.

 

My feet sink into the soft seabed

at low tide, clamming, bucket half-filled
with quahogs. The black-crowned

Night Heron lifts into the windy shift

from land to sea at dusk, free to roam,

gray bird against gray sky – it squawks

and with steady wing beats

 

leaves me mired in the muddy estuary.

    

             ~ Mary Torregrossa. Night Heron appears in Miju

               Poetry & Poetics, Korean Poets Society of America

in Korean and English, 2019

DAY LABORER

 

The hot sun at mid-day

is not as yellow

as the sun of my home.

 

In the span of concrete

bends like a finger pointing the way.

 

In the soot on the sidewalk

at the bus stops of LA

I look for the bus that scrolls HOME.

 

A hummingbird

hovers at eye level

wants me to follow

but I cannot fly.

 

The sand in the lot by the tire shop

is like cornmeal shushing

from cloth sacks in my

mother’s kitchen.

 

I stand very still

in the cool morning air

against a cinder block wall

hands in the pockets

of my sweatshirt

splattered with paint.

 

~ Mary Torregrossa. Day Laborer won a TOP TEN recognition

 by the Arroyo Arts Collective Poetry in The Windows Vl,

 in Spanish and English, 2014.

 WALKING YORKSHIRE

 

              I’ll walk where my own nature would be leading

                                                                              ~Emily Bronte

A wide expanse

of green mossy

mounds, a boggy

mess of land where

thick fog lingers long,

where after drizzle

mist ensues. And when

the day burns bright

and the robin’s-egg

blue sky polishes our eyes,

we are reminded by old

Nellie Dean, warning while

we walk – not to be deceived.

Not to scurry nor to slip

but take a measured step

though quick, and look

before you leap, as you might

land your boot in some hidden

glassy pool or maybe even

fall, head over heels,

into the marshy and uneven

moor.

~ Mary Torregrossa, Walking Yorkshire appears in 

Gondal Heights: A Bronte Tribute Anthology, 2019.

 

Hanna Kulenty, “Muzyka Grawitacyjna Nr 11,” acrylic on canvas, 2023.

 

 

 

Contents of the California Quarterly Vol. 50 No. 2 (Summer 2024) Edited by Nicholas Skaldetvind

California Quarterly Vol. 50, No. 2 (Summer 2024) edited by Nicholas Skaldetvind,

Cover Art: To Sleep, To Dream, To Remember by Ambika Talwar (2006). Mixed Media Collage — oils, acrylic, fabric, crayons, plant, paper on canvas. Size: 24”x 24”

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

California Quarterly, Volume 50, Number 2, Summer 2024 

That’s the Trouble —  Casey Fuller 7

To Money and Material  — Phil Linz 8

Static — Emily Barton Altman 8

After Brecht: Those Who Eat Their Fill —  Jim Ellis 9

A Poem for Portraits  — Anselm Berrigan 10

Stealing a Car with Eric Snyder   —  Casey Fuller 12

Villanelle No. One  —   Jeremy Rendina 14

Promotions are for Suckers    —  Anselm Berrigan 15

What Good is a Fist?  — Maja Trochimczyk 16

Na co ci ta pięść? (in Polish)   — Maja Trochimczyk, tr. 17

Evening Storm, New Mexico —   Kate Partridge 18

Down on Land   —  Kate Partridge     20

The Turn Towards Winter — Bruce Bennett 21

Somehow the Ghost Tree Still Blooms  —   Melinda Palacio 22

Statues   —   Aidan Coleman 23

The Hamptons   — Casey Fuller 24

Orcas Biting Propellers    —   Anselm Berrigan 25

Fault Lines   —    Sara Hailstone 26

Insula   —  Phillip Newton 27

Speculative Futures (#3)   — Anthony Caleshu 28

A Thousand Noises    —   Bruce Bennett 29

Pectus Excavatum   —   Barrett Warner 30

Bedchamber with Bright’s   — Rosa Lane 31

Ode to the Plumeria in Her Hair   —   Melinda Palacio 32

Nesting in Love’s Wildness   —    Ambika Talwar 33

Fulgurite Love   —  Sara Hailstone 34

Coffee   —   Alessio Zanelli 36

Anoint Anoint Anoint   — Linda Saccoccio 37

Deer Pause   —  Candace Walsh 39

Static 2  —   Emily Barton Altman 40

Tacit Accidents   —   Candace Walsh 40

A Colleague Remembers  —  Bruce Bennett 41

Let’s Meet Somewhere   —   Candace Walsh 42

Both Camps —   Thomas McGrath 43

Song   —   Thomas McGrath 43

Winter Crows   —   Don Heneghan 44

Winter A Time Machine   —   Linda Saccoccio 44

Pieces of String   —   Thomas McGrath 45

Möbius   —  Phillip Newton 45

Art—A Deep Slice    —  Henry HeartSong 46

Augury   —  Kate Partridge 47

On Cherche l’Afrique   —   Jane Stuart 48

Susan’s Calls are Like  Anthony’s Supper   —   Rosa Lane 49

Manna in Our Palms   —   Ambika Talwar 50

Sprouting Wings   —  Jane Stuart 51

No I Did Not Want To Write   An Essay So  —  shilo virginia previti  52

Far Reach   —  Rosa Lane 54

Madonna of Music   —   Anne-Marie Brumm   55

Dragon Fruit Awareness  —  Maja Trochimczyk 56

Evening by the Fire   —  Jane Stuart 57

Static No. 3   —   Emily Barton Altman 58

Contributors in Alphabetical Order                                              59

CSPS Contest Opportunities                                                      60  

CSPS Newsbriefs 2024, No. 2 by Maja Trochimczyk                 63      

Publishing Opportunities with CSPS                                           65

2022 CSPS Donors, Patrons, and Membership                          66

CSPS Membership Form                                                             68       

To Sleep, To Dream, To Remember by Ambika Talwar (2006). Mixed Media Collage — 

oils, acrylic, fabric, crayons, plant, paper on canvas. Size: 24”x 24”

EDITOR’S NOTE

 As Ezra Pound wrote elsewhere: “All time is contemporaneous.”    If these poems are other than uniform, it is because of rite and motif binding the living and the dead. This common partnership is of veridical significance as the poems transmute meaning.

            As Robert Frost wrote elsewhere: “No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” So, 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, of names, of feeling. 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. 

            What’s a reflection? A chance to see two. The reward is this terrific group singing the relationship they share with the world: Shilo Virginia Previti, Jeremy Rendina, Emilly Barton Altman, Casey Fuller, Rosa Lane, Candace Walsh, Anselm Berrigan, Kate Partridge. Songs in which there is the recognizable sound of a human voice inducing you to continue reading. There’s an ordered movement of the experience, an esthetic quality au fond.

            Reflecting on these poems, I am reminded of what Susan Howe wrote elsewhere: “Poetry is love for the felt fact.”  Discovering how each poem continues the other’s story. My aim has been to place 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 the people involved with the Chester Fritz Library for having made a selection of Thomas McGrath available to me. Thanks to Crystal Alberts. Thanks are due to the Board of the California State Poetry Society for trusting my judgment.  Thanks also to the keen Maja Trochimczyk for every little thing she does. Thanks to the poets for offering such a rich assortment of verse. And thanks are due to you. We are in society.

    Nicholas Skaldetvind 

Ojai, CA / Owasco, NY

Konrad Tademar Wilk, Maja Trochimczyk, Nicholas Skaldetvind, Spring 2024

NICHOLAS SKALDETVIND, EDITOR

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. He joined the Editorial Board in September 2023.

NEWSBRIEFS 2024, NO. 2, SUMMER 2024 

 

The CSPS ANNUAL POETRY CONTEST 2024 is in progress. The judge is Marlene Hitt, an author of two books (Clocks and Water Drops, 2015, and Yellow Tree Alone, 2022) and multiple chapbooks. She is a true community poet, who has done much to promote poetry writing, reading, and recognition in the Los Angeles area. In the era of poetic rants and manifestos, we value the unique, sometimes sardonic, sometimes bewildered poetic voice of Hitt, focused on finding inspiration and beauty in the quotidian—the seed stuck between the teeth, the plodding of beetles, the lone yellow tree of autumn that reminds her, and us, of the inherent loneliness of all human beings. Only original, hitherto unpublished work is eligible for submission.

The CALIFORNIA QUARTERLY welcomed a new guest editor for its spring 2024 issue: Beverly M. Collins, a noted poet and photographer, brought together many new authors and fascinating poems in the CQ vol. 50, no. 1, an issue graced with her nature photograph on the cover. While editing the CQ, she found that two poems she meant to include in the Quarterly were plagiarized by their purported author, a certain John Kucera. Maybe the name was not real either? After receiving the notification from Ms. Collins, I conducted a quick internet search and found two poetry periodicals that were deceived by the same plagiarist. One of them replaced the ripped-off work that they had already published with original poems that were stolen plus a note about the sad state of affairs. Luckily, these were online, not print journals.

I’m so glad we avoided the same fate for the California Quarterly, thanks to Beverly’s vigilance! I later sent proof of the wrongdoing to Submittable.com and the plagiarist (or prankster) was banned from the platform. However, this case made me wonder: why would anyone plagiarize poetry? I understand term papers: lazy students want better grades without effort. I even can comprehend plagiarism of scholarly or scientific papers: the stakes are career and money. But poetry? Very strange, indeed. Unless it was a test and a project of someone bent to prove that modern poetry is all gobbledygook and nobody reads anything… Similarly, some people seek to prove that modern “critical theory” papers in the humanities are pure nonsense, since their fake, jargon-filled writings get published. Actually, the state of scientific journals these days is a horror story. An academic publisher Wiley had retracted over 11,000 papers in the past few years and had closed 19 journals that were the most affected. The censorship of scholarly dissent and non-conforming views is yet another issue that the “scientific” community, captured by corrupt corporations and global ideologues, has to deal with. We are so happy to be penniless poets in such a crazy world!

POETRY LETTER. The first issue of the Poetry Letter in 2024 presented prize-winning poems from 2023 Monthly Contests, illustrated with paintings from the Smithsonian Museum of American Art: folk art by Josephine Joy (1869-1948), anonymous rural paintings, and California landscape art by Elmer Wachtel (1864-1939), Paul Dougherty (1877-1947), and Edward Bruce (1879-1943).  According to the Smithsonian, “Josephine Joy grew up on an Illinois farm, where she loved to sketch birds, trees, and flowers. Circumstances prevented her from following her artistic calling until 1927, after her children were grown and her husband had died. Joy lived in California then, and the WPA’s California Art Project afforded her the opportunity to work gainfully as an artist.” I like “naïve” art of amateur artist like Ociepka in Poland, taking a place of honor at a recent Surrealism exhibition at the National Museum in Warsaw. Colorful and imaginative, it is art not constrained by convention—be it traditional modes of representation, or narrowly defined modernist trends. The poets of Poetry Letter 1/2024 also included CQ Editor Konrad Tademar Wilk, a prolific creator of sonnets in English and Polish. We presented a selection from his forthcoming book of 164 sonnets, Trafficking of Time. 

The Poetry Letter No. 2 of 2024 featured eminent California poets Sharmagne Leland-St. John (author of many books and publisher of The Quill and Parchment monthly online poetry journal) and Mary Torregrossa, plus artwork by Hanna Kulenty, a noted Polish composer of large scale “surrealist music” who recently started painting. Her work reminds us that all artists were once “self-taught” and did not need diplomas and academic credentials to create great art. The Poetry Letter was rounded up by reviews of books by Kathy Lohrum Cotton, Ann Fox Chandonnet, Anna Maria Mickiewicz and Deborah P Kolodji. The reviewers were Michael Escoubas and Zbigniew Mirosławski. Incidentally, by happenstance all featured authors were female, while both reviewers were male. "The feminine" in action as creators, and "the masculine" as passive observers... A reversal of traditional roles, long past. . .  

 Maja Trochimczyk, CSPS President 

Maja Trochimczyk, Institute of Musicology, University of Warsaw, May 2024

June 30, 2024 Deadline for CSPS Annual Poetry Contest Judged by Marlene Hitt

The California State Poetry Society is pleased to announce its 37th Annual Poetry Contest. Submissions are accepted from May 1st – June 30th, 2024. The Judge is Marlene Hitt. 

SUBMISSIONS: Up to 10 poems per one poet may be submitted with a limit of 80 lines per poem. All poem should be previously unpublished, including print books or journal publication, posts on social media, websites, blogs, and online journals. Poems must be written in English, with translation provided in notes if words or phrases from other languages are used. Submissions are only by mail, with clearly printed poems on unmarked pages, with one-sided printing, and no identifying information about the poet (no name, address, email, etc.)

PRIZES:  $100, $50, $25 Cash for 1st, 2nd and 3rd Prizes, plus publication in the California Quarterly, Vol. 50, No. 4 (2024 Winter). 

READING FEES: CSPS Members, $3.00/poem; Non-members, $6.00/poem. Submit the reading fees only BY CHECK payable to CSPS or California State Poetry Society with a note "Annual Contest 2024."

WINNERS: Winners will be announced in September 2022. Submissions are now welcome of original poems with 80-line (two-page) limit per poem. Submissions are only accepted by mail. 

HOW TO SUBMIT: Send a cover letter with all poet information (mailing address, email address, name, phone) and a list of the submitted poems, as well as one copy of each poem with NO poet identification, and a check for the appropriate amount of reading fees to: 

           CSPS Annual Contest Chair

           P.O. Box 4288 Sunland, CA 91041-4288 

CONTEST JUDGE - MARLENE HITT

Marlene Hitt was the first Poet Laureate of Sunland Tujunga (1999- 2001). She has been a member of the Chupa Rosa Writers of Sunland- Tujunga and the Foothills since its inception in 1985. Her critically-acclaimed first poetry collection Clocks and Water Drops was published by Moonrise Press in 2015. Her second collection, Yellow Tree Alone appeared in 2022. In addition to publishing numerous poetry chapbooks, she has authored a non- fiction book Sunland-Tujunga, from Village to City and two books of stories for children: Grandma's Stories for All People Large and Small and The Discontent of Brother Turnip and Grandfather Tree. Her poems appeared in Psychopoetica (UK), Chupa Rosa Diaries of the Chupa Rosa Writers, Sunland (2001-2003), Glendale College’s Eclipse anthologies, CSPS California Quarterly and Poetry Letter; and poetry anthologies (Chopin with Cherries, 2010; Meditations on Divine Names, 2012; and We Are Here: Village Poets Anthology that she co-edited in 2020 with Maja Trochimczyk).

Recently, Hitt was one of 12 poets invited to contribute to Crystal Fire. Poems of Joy and Wisdom (2022). Her work also appears in Sometimes in the Open, a collection of verse by California Poets Laureate, and The Coiled Serpent, anthology of Los Angeles poets, edited by Luis Rodriguez (2016).

Marlene Hitt served at the Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga as Museum Director and docent for many years. Ms. Hitt was the history writer for the Foothill Leader, Glendale News Press, North Valley Reporter, and Voice of the Village newspapers. She has been honored as the Woman of Achievement by the Business and Professional Women's Club, Woman of the Year by the U.S. Congress, and many congratulatory scrolls by the City and County of Los Angeles, and the State of California. In 2019, Village Poets of Sunland-Tujunga presented to Marlene and her husband Lloyd, a Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing their support of poetry in the Foothills.