New Book by Elizabeth Yahn Williams, Dr. Edith Jonsson-Devillers, and California Quarterly 47:1 edited by Bory Thach on July 25, 2021, 4:30pm Zoom

Yucca Whipplei photo by Maja Trochimczyk. 

Video Recording of the Reading on YouTube:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raVsjZqb62c

For its July Monthly Reading on Zoom, the Village Poets of Sunland-Tujunga present a new book by Elizabeth Yahn Williams, Flourishing - Florescence,  including her poetry published with French translations by Dr. Edith Jonsson-Devillers. The reading will also feature poetry from the California Quarterly 47 no. 1, Spring 2021, edited by Bory Thach and published by the California State Poetry Society.  

The Monthly Reading will take place on Zoom, on Sunday, July 25, 2021 at 4:30 pm.  DMHSkiles@gmail.com will forward you the invitation, when requested.

Elizabeth Yahn Williams flourishes as a poet-playwright, educator, speaker, and emcee. A native Ohioan, she has earned grants for studies in several states and foreign countries. Through a Ford Foundation grant at UCLA, she became a California Lifetime credentialed English educator and was named a “most distinguished honorary lifetime member” of the Phi Theta Kappa Chapter at MiraCosta Community College in San Diego for mentoring their honor students.  A graduate of Loyola Law School,  Elizabeth is recognized as a Marquis WHO’S WHO Lifetime Achiever in law and writing. She has enjoyed an imaginative life, from directing in her community’s theatres to teaching creative problem-solving and poetry at  libraries, colleges, and churches. Often performing with Bob Lundy, her Partner-in-Rhyme, she can be reached at ElizabethYahn@gmail.com and seen on their site: www.HITHERandYAHN.com

Dr. Edith Jonsson-Devillers taught as a professor of French and Spanish at U.C. and other universities in the U.S. and Europe. She first came to this country on a Fulbright fellowship and eventually founded and ran her own language school and translation company. As a scholar in Comparative Literature, she wrote or translated and published many works in French, English, and Spanish. Her poetic translations include works by Mexico’s Octavio Paz and Guadeloupe’s French poet, St-John Perse, both Nobel prize winners. Her expansive interests have led her to translate Latin America’s Helena Araújo and Nela Rio, as well as works of Indian mystics.

Flourishing – Florescence by Elizabeth Yahn Williams with Art by Marion Wong and French Translation by Edith Jonsson-Devillers. Guidelights Productions, 2020. 130 pages. ISBN 978-0-9967170-4-5

About this book: "Poet and California State Poetry Society member Elizabeth Yahn Williams is premiering her new bilingual collection, written in English and French in collaboration with  her gifted translator Dr. Edith Jonsson-Devillers.  A display of the mastery of free verse and rhyme, Flourishing – Florescence includes evocative haiku and senryu, along with other poetic forms. Here, Elizabeth Yahn Williams investigates the many ways that life, enhanced by poetry, encourages each of us to FLOURISH. Whether, as a reader, you are looking for inspiration or for motivation, one or more of her offerings will speak to you in words both lyrical and stimulating. With vivid imagery Elizabeth creates poignant vignettes that will relate to your own life in unexpected ways. You will find humor in the rhymes of “Perusing the Parrot,” pathos in “Grand Piano,” and a mix of emotions from haiku that capture, with brevity, illusions of time and space. With haunting and vivid language, Williams  has a gift for choosing the right word for the right place."

(from a review by Kathy Lund Derengowski, published in CSPS Poetry Letter No. 2, 2021, reprinted on the CSPS blog.

https://www.californiastatepoetrysociety.com/2021/06/book-reviews-from-poetry-letter-2-2021.html

Chagall, "Peace" - stained glass at the United Nations, 1964

 Marc Chagall: One Man Opera

Chagall recalls history in rainbow-filled hues.

Above lovers’ heads, angels fly with acclaim.

His art reveals levels of multiple views.

To Homeland Russia he repays his dues.

Its churches and temples he paints into fame.

Chagall recalls history in rainbow-filled hues.

His fables, myths, scriptures, and circus revues

show farmlands and towns from where he came.

His art reveals levels of multiple views.

Always his brides are veiled in virtues

and, bearing Godivas, his burros are tame.

Chagall recalls history in rainbow-filled hues.

His acrobat-cocks wear little soft shoes

while tap dancing fiddlers invoke La Fontaine.

His art reveals levels of multiple views.

His works for great cities often début

in etchings, ceramics, and glass that is stained.

Chagall recalls history in rainbow-filled hues.

His art reveals levels of multiple views.

 Marc Chagall, l'opéra d'un seul homme 

Chagall rappelle une histoire aux couleurs d'arc-en-ciel.

Des anges volètent autour de la tête de ceux qui s'aiment.

Son art révèle les facettes d'un multiple regard.

Il rend un hommage légitime à sa Russie natale,

et rend célèbre ses églises et ses temples.

Chagall rappelle une histoire au couleurs d'arc-en-ciel.

Ses fables, ses mythes, ses sculptures, ses critiques de spectacles

représentent les terroirs et les villes natales.

Son art révèle les facettes d'un multiple regard.

Ses nouvelles mariées sont toujours voilées de vertus

et ses ânes porteurs de Godivas sont très doux.

Chagall rappelle une histoire au couleurs d'arc-en-ciel.

Ses coqs acrobatiques portent de petits chaussons

tandis que des violonistes faiseurs de claquettes invoquent La Fontaine.

Son art révèle les facettes d'un multiple regard.

Ses oeuvres pour grandes villes souvant débutent

par ses gravures, sa céramique, ses vitraux.

Chagall rappelle une histoire aux couleurs d'arc-en-ciel.

Son art révèle les facettes d'un multiple regard.

California Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 1 (Spring 2021)

Cover Art: Harmony (ink and watercolor on paper, 11 by 15 inches) 

by Sylvia Van Nooten, Montrose, Colorado

Editor’s Note

Being a new member of CSPS I find that this is a learning experience for me. Maja Trochimczyk calls poetry a “cure for chaos” and I agree with her.  Many times we go through periods of difficulty and sadness, but it is important to remember that these dark times will eventually pass by like the seasons. With winter comes spring. The universe has a way of balancing itself out in the end. I, for one, have to remind myself constantly how lucky it is to be alive and every day is a new day to see the world differently. From the mundane to the extraordinary, each experience that we find ourselves learning whether it be through obstacles at work like in Richard Matta’s “Another Play Day” where he wishes that he could be a kid again, or the act of simply giving a little boy a bath before bed in “The Completeness” by Alice Pero, an insight into childhood innocence. The joy we find in our daily activities allows us to overcome grief with a brighter outlook when disaster strikes. It is a reminder to never give up hope no matter how difficult the loss. Therefore, nothing should be taken for granted not even our struggles. For the obstacles we defeat and the fears that die away become our strength, teaching us more about ourselves than any college or university.

After wildfires we can learn “To Plant A Tree” as a gift, to “put down roots” and “stand our ground” the way Miriam Aroner does because this is how the world grows anew. Mother Earth has a way of healing herself. Animals possess sacred knowledge in their simplicity, knowing what they know we too may survive the ravages of time. To live in the moment, that is true enlightenment through mindfulness. Claire Scott captures this in her poem “Cedar Waxwings” where hundreds of them are observed landing in the backyard. She describes watching the “show from the window, a kaleidoscope of colors, sound and motion.” Even after they have flown away, she continues to stare at the empty Privet tree in silent serenity. A journey of self-discovery, chaos and turmoil threaten us, but the wisdom of the ancients survive throughout the ages.  We live and learn from personal experiences.  What better way to discover one’s true self than to go through failure and heartbreak, reaching our breaking point and knowing that we can continue on further. I hope that you will also find these poems enjoyable and insightful to the soul.

Bory Thach

San Bernardino, California

Contents of the journal with the list of poets/poems is found on California State Poetry Society blog:

https://www.californiastatepoetrysociety.com/2021/03/california-quarterly-vol-47-no-1-spring.html

Bory Thach was born in a refugee camp located on the border between Thailand and Cambodia. His family immigrated to the United States when he was four years old. He served in the U.S. Army and deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has an MFA from California State University San Bernardino. Fiction and creative nonfiction fall under the art of storytelling, while poetry for him is more of a study of language, an art form in itself. His work appeared or is forthcoming in: Pacific Review, Urban Ivy, Arteidolia, Sand Canyon Review and We Are Here: Village Poets Anthology. He recently completed a book of poetry dialogues with Cindy Rinne, Letters under Rock (2019) that has been presented as a quasi-theatrical performance in art galleries and museums in Southern California. He joined the Editorial Board in July 2020 and started his duties from volume 47 no. 1 of the California Quarterly.

Photos of Yucca Whipplei in Big Tujunga Wash (c) 2021 by Maja Trochimczyk 

Cile Borman, Singer and Poet, with Andrew Kolo, Painter and Poet, on November 24, 2019

Pacific Coast Highway, oil painting by Andrew Kolo

The Village Poets's next reading will take place on Sunday, November 24, 2019 at 4:30 p.m. at Bolton Hall Museum, 10110 Commerce Avenue, Tujunga, CA 91042.  Village Poets  will present the wonderful Singer, Songwriter, Poet, Actress, and Community Activist, Cile Borman. She will share the afternoon with the featured artist - painter, poet and writer Andy Kolo (Andrzej Kolodziej), the founder of Polish Krak Poetry Group and of the Krak Art Group of California-based artists. The reading will include two open mike segments. Refreshments will be served and $3 donations collected for the cost of the venue, the second historical landmark in the City of Los Angeles, that celebrated its centennial in 2013.  The Museum is managed by the Little Landers Historical Society.

CILE BORMAN, ACTRESS, SINGER, POET

Music is the motivating force in Cile’s life.  She has traveled all throughout the USA cultivating her singing voice and perfecting her audience communication stills. Cile’ has appeared in Liberia West Africa, and throughout Germany.  She was the opening act in Japan for the Temptations and has always combined original material with popular favorites in her exciting show.  From Anchorage, Alaska to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, from Seattle, Washington to Hollywood, California Cile’ has become a popular performer.  She got her start singing with the jazz orchestra at Roosevelt University in Chicago Illinois.  Her evolution from jazz to rhythm and blues has been influential in helping her to develop her own style that she has use to blend with her love of Caribbean music and culture.  Cile’ has included the playing of the steel drum into her presentation.  The steel drum was conceived, and developed, on the island of Trinidad.

Cile Borman has lived in Lake View Terrace, California, since 1982.  She and her husband writer and keyboard player Mike Borman, have received awards for their performances of their original musical projects for young people. In their songwriting collaborations, Cile writes the texts and Mike Borman writes the music. From being a lyricist it is a short way to become a poet-musician, in the ancient tradition of singers who sang texts that they wrote themselves. 

 During the late 1990's the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department created neighborhood arts councils all over the city.  Cile was very active in the creation of the Northeast San Fernando Valley Arts Council.  Nine panels 4ft. By 4ft.  panels, representing communities located in the Northeast Valley were researched, designed and painted by highschool students from the area and displayed through out the city culminating with the Los Angeles City celebration of the millennium in the year 2000.  Cile, recognizing the importance of these panels has made sure that these panels are stored in specially designed cases, in a safe environment, for future display. 

The Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department also awarded Cile a $3,000.00 grant in 2001 to present Her original musical "We Are The Future" at the Lake View Terrace Recreational Center.  Ms. Borman enlisted community members to donate time and funds for lighting, set decorations, and rehearsal space. She auditioned and rehearsed the talented young people from her community, whom she paid to do a successful one night performance.        

Cile Borman at Bolton Hall Museum

She has served and continues to serve on numerous community boards. She served as the Outreach Chairperson for the Foothill Trails District Neighborhood Council (FTDNC) and was one of the essential people who worked to get, FTDNC certified and through the process of having an elected board. Cile Borman serves as a member of the board of the Lake View Terrace Improvement Association (LVTIA).  She also has been a past president of LVTIA, and serves on the "LVT Friends Of The Library" committee. Cile was Vice President of the Small Wilderness Area Preservation (SWAP).  This is an environmental group united to help preserve open space for the public.  Cile is President of 4 July at Hansen Dam Committee.  She has been a dedicated volunteer contributing her time to this committee for almost a decade.  She feels this is and event that should always be a part of the Northeast San Fernando Valley's yearly calendar.  

Here are some of the other community groups and projects that she is presently involved with: The Friends of the Lake View Terrace Library, Lopez Canyon Advisory Committee, the Tujunga Watershed Council, the Day Of The Horse Celebration and Snow Day at Hansen Dam.  Cile also has been an offical a judge for the Pacoima Christmas Parade and has recently become a member of the Pacoima Chamber of Commerce.  

Her other project include: 

a) Funded by the Department Of Public Works, $10,000.00 Beautification Grant Program 2006 to transform the southwest corner of Foothill Blvd. and Osborne Street into a community beautification project entitled “Cultural Vista.” 

b) Helping to mentor high school girls as part of her involvement with Beta Pi Sigma Sorority Inc. Zeta Chapter.       

More information: CileTurnerBorman.com


THE WEEKEND

Telephone poles marching,
Tumble weed rolling,
I miss your touch, so very much,
The radio keeps me company,
The songs wile the miles away,
I realize you never think of me anymore,
And it hurts, because i still think of you,
I pause at a crossroad to brush away a tear,
I wish you were near, sitting right here,
Sharing the landmarks that we use to share,
I remind myself again, that you no longer care,
Golden aspen beside a stream,
I pause to take in the view and to dream,
Ahead in the distance, the desert is aglow,
With the lights of the city, that we use to know,
I check in downtown,
 and walk the blazing streets where we use to go,
I miss you so,
From my window i view,
 a neon cowboy waving at me, he reminds me of you
I decide to take in a show, i’ll dine alone,
At a place where we use to go,
I still miss you so,
I watch the couples and at first i feel jelousy,
My eyes fill with tears, because now i see,
I needed this weekend to revisit the past,
So i dress for the road,
I change my purfume,
I’m on the move again, and not a moment to soon
Headed back to the city the future is clear,
The journey to the past, was bitter sweet,
A place where ghosts live and meet,
Love never dies, it only changes.

Photo by Maja Trochimczyk, Descanso Gardens

WHAT IS THE BLUES

What is the blues
How do you feel it
When do you know when
You got the blues
Who is the blues man
How is he feelin
What makes him able
To sing the blues

There was buddy bolden
Out of the delta
And louie armstrong
Out of the waifs home
Bessie smith & big momma thornton
Singin their hearts out
While livin the blues

How do you feel it
Where do you find it
What is the blues
How do you know
How is it written
Where is the rhythm
What are the chords
To make it so

Displaced manhood
Corrupted womanhood
Too many children
Up to no good
Blood on the highway
Blood in the tall trees
People gone mad, crying the blues

The blues is a lifestyle
Painful and half wild
Stabbing your insides
Sucking your bones dry
The blues is a feelin
That keeps you reelin
Searchin for something
To ease the pain

I hear the outcry, the lyrics don’t lie
They make my blood run, hot & cold
I hear the wailing i know the torment
I feel the pain, down deep in my soul
…………..that is the blues

(c) Cile Borman

Portrait by Jeff Riedel

ANDREW KOLO / ANDRZEJ KOLODZIEJ, PAINTER AND POET

Andrew Kolo is a California artist, painter, poet and playwright born in Poland. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń with the title of Master of Arts in Painting and continued his studies in Paris and Los Angeles. He is the leader of the Krak Art Group that held many large exhibitions, for instance "Polish Identity" at the Bergamot Station in Santa Monica to celebrate Polish Regained Independence in 2018.

Artwork by Andy Kolo (Andrzej Kolodziej) at Krak Art Group Exhibition Polish Identity 

at the Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, November 2018. Photo by Maja Trochimczyk

Kolo's vocation is art, his passion is poetry. His poem: "America of an Immigrant" won the 1st prize in the national-wide poetry magazine competition: LUCIDITY Poetry Journal in Houston, Texas. Andrzej founded "Krak Poetry Group" in Los Angeles consisting of Polish-American poets and "9 ½ POETRY", a group that promoted the work of young American poets.  He is the author of a collection of poems and satirical arts POLKA DOT TUXEDO published by Xlibris. Based on his script, MY MARILYN was filmed. His play THE TRIAL OF DALI "was presented in Los Angeles, at Hollywood, at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in June 2019, and in Sydney, Australia.

Links to videos with his paintings:

Oil paintings: https://youtu.be/6sNqEJ9IW1U

Pastels: https://youtu.be/gju36MmgHF0

The next exhibition of Krak Art Group:

"Feeling It Together" at Vienna Woods, 351 La Brea Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036

on Saturday, November 23, 2019, 6-9 PM Opening Reception

Artists: Joanna Fodczuk-Garcia, Andrew Kolo, Leonard Konopelski, 
Janusz Maszkiewicz, Tomasz Misztal, Kasia Czerpal-Weglinska, Witold Vito Wojcik

Southern Border by Andrew Kolo, oil painting

EYES OF PICASSO 

Eyes of Picasso

are bigger than yours.

More self-confident

Than ours.

He sees

More forms and colors 

Than you and I. 

Then he transfers

The objects through

A prism of Cubism.

Eyes of Picasso

Always wonder.

Directed toward

The canvas 

Are like eyes

Of an eagle.

Registering the smallest

Shades of color. 

Eyes of Picasso

Are like eyes

of a madman.

First they discover beauty

then they mercilessly

deform it, regardless

if it is a landscape,

still life,

wife

or a lover.

California Passage - Oil Painting by Andrew Kolo

Garden of Eden

In the Garden of Eden brightly colored
flowers and bushes never cease blooming
and never knew winter.
The fig tree belongs to you - my dearest
and the olive one - to me.
Make yourself comfortable in their aromatic shade.

In the tangled branches snake is hissing softly.
Under an apple tree Adam and Eve, embracing.
I give you sons and daughters – she whispers
tucking him into an animal fur coat.
This delicious fruit called an apple
can only make you stronger - my beloved.

 the first snowflakes are beginning to fall
 upon the flowery Garden of Eden
 like the first sins.

                       ~ Andrew  Kolo

Andrew Kolo, with Maja Trochimczyk, and Leonard Konopelski 

at the opening of the exhibit by Antonina Konopelska, 2018, Vienna Woods Gallery.

California Quarterly 45:3 Autumn 2019 

Edited by Maja Trochimczyk

During the event, poems from the most recent issue of the California Quarterly 45:3 will be presented.

Contents, and a note about Russell Salamon by Lois P. Jones 

 https://www.californiastatepoetrysociety.com/2019/09/california-quarterly-453-autumn-2019.html

This issue of California Quarterly (published since 1972) contains a tribute to Russell Salamon by Lois. P. Jones and a selection of his unpublished poems. Russell was one of the editors of CQ, and died this year. His poem "Redwood Trees" was posthumously nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2019 by the volume's editor, Maja Trochimczyk

Established in 1971, The California State Poetry Society is the official state organization representing California to the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (NFSPS). We were incorporated on August 14th, 1985 as a 501(c)(3) organization, so donations above the membership level are tax deductible. Donor and patron support ensure (1) the quality publications of the CSPS continue and (2) our mission to promote poetry and art in California and around the world continues to grow. Information regarding renewal and patron contributions is on the Membership page. The CSPS began publication of the California Quarterly in the fall of 1972.

Official CSPS Website: https://californiastatepoetrysociety.org/

Current News from CSPS: https://www.californiastatepoetrysociety.com/

Photos from Suzanne Lummis's 

Honorary CSPS Membership Presentation

Certificate Presented to Suzanne Lummis

Maja Trochimczyk, Senator Portantino, Suzanne Lummis

In addition to CSPS Honorary Membership certificate, Ms. Lummis received a Certifcate of Appreciation from Senator Anthony Portantino who read his own poem. He is a poet and a great friend of poetry; he came in person to our event because he owes a huge debt to Ms. Lummis, who encouraged him to read his own poetry at public literary events. We are all so grateful to Suzanne for all she does for poetry and for her insights and talent!     

  

Maja Trochimczyk, Senator Portantino, Suzanne Lummis

Suzanne Lummis

Village Poets with Ms. Lummis: Trochimczyk, Lummis, Skiles, Shea, DeCenzo, Hitt

Suzanne Lummis with her Peacock Feather Rose Bouquet, and Maja Trochimczyk

Suzanne Lummis with Maja Trochimczyk and Ed Rosenthal "Poet Broker" holding bronze peacocks

to accompany the peacock feathers in her red rose bouquet. 

Standing L to R: Marlene Hitt, Cile Borman, Joe DeCenzo, Ed Rosenthal, Peter Larsen, Gene Schutz, 

Dr. Mira Mataric, Dr. Rick Wilson, Kathabela Wilson, Taura Scott. Seated L to R: Maja Trochimczyk, 

Pamela Shea, Suzanne Lummis, and Dorothy Skiles

Suzanne Lummis, Photo by Joe DeCenzo

In addition to the  certificates from Sen. Portantino and Village Poets, congratulations were offered to Ms. Lummis by CSPS members who attended the ceremony: Kathabela Wilson, Pamela Shea, and Ed Rosenthal.

Taura Scott, Kathabela Wilson, Rick Wilson perform at the event, sponsored in part by the Moonrise Press.

__________________________________________________

Peggy Dobreer and Mandy Kahn at Village Poets on Sunday March 24, 2019

Big Tujunga Wash, February 2019, Photo by Maja Trochimczyk

Village Poets of Sunland Tujunga present Peggy Dobreer and Mandy Kahn as Featured Poets on Sunday, September 25, 2016 at 4:30 p.m. at Bolton Hall Museum (10110 Commerce Avenue, Tujunga, CA 91042). The reading will feature two Open Mike segments and refreshments. We will pass around the  hat of George Harris, the builder of Bolton  Hall Museum, Los Angeles Historic Monument no. 2 (from 1913), for voluntary donations of $3 per person. 

PEGGY DOBREER 

Peggy Dobreer won Downey Symphony Orchestra’s, Poetry Matters 2016 Contest.  She has one pushcart nomination from Cadence Collective, and two books with Moon Tide Press: Drop & Dazzle and In the Lake of Your Bones. Peggy is featured in the first Aeolian Harp Folio Series by Glass Lyre Press and has been published in Cultural Weekly, The Rise Up Review, Pirene’s Fountain, For the Love of Words, Mas Tequilla Press, Malpais Review, and LA Yoga Magazine among others. 

Peggy is a longtime educator and former dancer, who taught with Red Hen Press for Writing in the Schools, and was a Program Director for AROHO2015, A Rom of Her Own Foundation. She has curated and promoted other poets at venues in LA for 15 years. Visit her at www.peggydobreer.com.

Calla lily leaf, by Maja Trochimczyk

Exquisite Harmonics

What is exquisite

            is the breaking of china

                        splash against tile

            bright tones of glass

What is exquisite

            is the tango of Kali

                        The savory statement

            of unsung stanzas

The brain quenching

                        fire of mouths

Migration of the herd

            to the gate of the mind

                        Throne of the flesh

                                    that lights up the eye

                                                Arc of the rib to

                                                            the bone in the soup

What is exquisite

            is a memoir of the body

                        A vibratory tonic of

            connective harmonics

guiding chants that

                                                cannot be extinguished

What is exquisite

            is this limitless unleadening

                        alchemy of Ganesh on our sleeves

In the breath

            of the opening cage

                        the rush to rhapsody’s rest

                                    in the eyes of the hawk

                                                on the wings of a loon

                                                            who light this way and

                                                                        fill these forests with sound                    

  (C) by Peggy Dobreer

MANDY KAHN

Mandy Kahn

Mandy Kahn is the author of two poetry collections, Glenn Gould’s Chair and Math, Heaven, Time. Her poetry is included in The Best American Poetry 2018 from Scribner/Simon & Schuster and was featured in former Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s newspaper column American Life in Poetry. She’s given readings at Cambridge University, London Review Bookshop and Shoreditch House in England, at Motto in Berlin, at Colette in Paris, at Printed Matter in New York, at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, and at many venues in Southern California, and has been interviewed by BBC Radio, Flaunt and The Los Angeles Review of Books. She frequently collaborates with composers to create new works that combine verse and classical music and was a librettist for Yuval Sharon’s immersive opera Hopscotch. 


THE EVERYDAY

Old friends, old loves, I celebrate
the day-to-day you’ve found: the favored cup,
the dog, the child, the husband, wife—
the hat rack by the door, the bowl of keys,
the chair in sun,
weekends with your omelets made
just right. You graduated into
the encyclopedic pleasures of the everyday,
that brighter vision—
the sharp phantasmagoria you enter
when you watch your child through sprinkler water:
that moving prism.

Didn’t I always tell you, lover, roommate,
there were portals by the dishtowels?
          
                                    You think you left your dreams.

You’ve entered
the Basilica of the Present
by its common causeway.

This, your striving earned.

Pier in Hermosa Beach, by Maja Trochimczyk

The Tour Guide

I followed the German tour guide

through the hulking old basilica.

He told the group (or so I guessed),

indicating high and low:

This is where the wind begins.

This is where the childhoods of a thousand

martyrs live, untouched.

Wood grain in these pews still curls

to likenesses of patron saints.

Window-holes are cut the breadth

of human souls, when loosed.

Dark paint in the frescoes is crushed ants.

White paint is light.

Leaves and fauna long extinct are rendered

in the porticoes. See that goat

with antlers? Gone from life,

but captured here.

(Hold your breath and it bows its head.)

(Reach towards the ceiling and sigh, and it sighs.)

Worth two times the value of the Bulgar Sea

is that old bell.

(When younger priests

would ring it,

the nuns were warned to shield their hearts.)

He said far more

I can’t recall

and when I tried to pay him,

he spurned my coins, saying, in German,

What good is money,

my child, to the wind?

Pacific Ocean with LA seen from Hermosa Beach, Maja Trochimczyk

VILLAGE POETS NEWS

VILLAGE POETS ANTHOLOGY

In 2020, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Village Poets Readings, Moonrise Press will issue a Village Poets Anthology, with poems by featured poets - and regular attendees of the readings over the past ten years. Please submit your poems and bios on moonrisepress website - or via email in one attachment with three poems (one will be selected) and a 150 to 200 word biographical notes.  

Email to maja@moonrisepress.com.  Submission deadline - August 31, 2019.

Due to large number of contributors, the anthology will be available for sale to contributors of one poem each at heavily discounted price of $10. An eBook will also be made. 

TOTI O'BRIEN FEATURE IN FEBRUARY 2019

L to R, standing: Maja Trochimczyk, Joe DeCenzo, Dan Krosser, Marlene Hitt, Pauli Dutton, Pete Larsen, Rick Wilson, Rick Dutton, Mari Werner, Sharon Hawley with issue of Colorado Boulevard with an article by Toti. Seated L to R: Pam Shea, Kathabela Wilson, Toti O'Brien, Joyce Futa, Mary Torregrosa.

L to R, standing: Maja Trochimczyk, Joe DeCenzo, Dan Krosser, Marlene Hitt, Pauli Dutton, Pete Larsen, Rick Wilson, Rick Dutton, Mari Werner, Sharon Hawley with issue of Colorado Boulevard with an article by Toti. Seated L to R: Pam Shea, Kathabela Wilson, Toti O'Brien, Joyce Futa, Mary Torregrosa.

During the reading, Maja Trochimczyk presented the California Quarterly vol. 44 no. 4 edited by Margaret Saine including her poem, "Oh, the Art of Looking."  Trochimczyk then encouraged poets to submit their work to the CQ via the website of the California State Poetry Society. Dr. Trochimczyk has just been elected the new Acting President of the CSPS.  The Society organizes monthly poetry contests, annual poetry contests, and publishes the California Quarterly, edited by eight California poets, each with a different voice, priorities and interests.  This makes the journal vibrant and relevant.

https://www.californiastatepoetrysociety.org/

The same group with Dorothy Skiles on the left, and Alice Pero next to Marlene.