National Poetry Month - Poetry of the Desert, Poetry Everywhere

What a wonderfully eventful the Month of April has become for all the poetry lovers. Moonrise Press is happy to announce that plans are under way to publish a collection of Survival Poems by Ed Rosenthal, who was lost in the Mojave Desert for over 6 days, and came out alive, and changed...

 

This book, currently in preparation, will be illustrated with desert photos and will be our contribution to the world's poetry community in 2013.

 

There are several poetry and events planned with the participation of Maja Trochimczyk, including two in the next week:

 

• "Poetry and Cookies" Group Reading and book publication party at the Altadena Public Library, in Altadena, on Saturday, April 27, 2013 at 2 p.m. Reading the poem "On Eating a Donut at a Krakow Airport" and "The Poet of Lost Cats" dedicated to Karen Klingman
• "Co-Inspirators: Poets, Artists, Musicians" Group Reading at the Pasadena Library, Wright Auditorium, on Monday, April 29, 2013, at 6 p.m., organized by Rey R. Luminarias (featuring poetry from the Chopin with Cherries Anthology and a poem inspired by Susan Dobay's art)
• "The Sound of Music" Group Photography Exhibition for the Opening of the American Paderewski Piano Competition, May 21-25, 2013 (two photographs, "Chopin's Piano 1845" and "Gorecki's Portrait")
• "Roses, Leaves, Roses" Exhibition of Photography and Poetry by Maja Trochimczyk, Scenic Drive Gallery, Monrovia, September 1-22, 2013 (with photos and poetry from Rose Always, Miriam's Iris, and Meditations on Divine Names)

 

To celebrate the Month of Poetry, Apryl Skies selected the poem below as the Poem of the Day last Thursday (April 18, 2013). It was originally published in the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, and revised prior to its publication on the Edgar Allan Poet Blog.  http://edgarallanpoet.com/Definition__Writing.html

 

In 2012, the following article was published along the poem in the Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/article/majatrochimczyk-poet-laureate-the-passing-of-laurels

 

Definition: Writing 

               in response to George Jisho Robertson’s essay “Path of Poesis”

It is not like splitting the match in four

or counting devils on its round head –

none of this matters, really

see the sunrise above Strawberry Peak

and Mount Disappointment shimmer

on the puffy underbelly of summer clouds

be dazed by bright ripples on a shallow canyon stream

shining like scales of a carp waiting to be killed

in a bathtub before Polish Easter

listen to the roosting birds at dusk,

the murder of crows covering tree branches

with angular shapes, dense Xenakis chords,

black clusters, dissonant, intense. They bathe

in the river, sit on a concrete bank with wet wings

outstretched, drooping with water, docile

like tattooed crowds resting, sweating

on sandy beach towels in Santa Monica,

waiting for a tsunami that will not come

shifting the gaze is important, from the navel

to cosmos – not how we fail in a multitude of ways,

but what graces hide in galaxies

that collide amidsts exploding supernovas,

on thousands of inhabitable planets

we’ll count but never touch –

we’ll touch but never count

the veins on the petals of the rose

shriveling from desert heat, just opened

Not us, then, look around, beyond,
catch what’s already gone, hold it
in your hand – the spark, the passing

(c) 2010 by Maja Trochimczyk

 

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Photos from Descanso Gardens in La Canada

(c) 2013 by Maja Trochimczyk