The Desert Hat Reading at Bolton Hall Museum, November 24 at 4:30 pm

The next reading from Ed Rosenthal's "The Desert Hat" will take place on Sunday, November 24, 2013 at 4:30 p.m. at the Monthly Village Poets Reading at Bolton Hall Museum. The Bolton Hall, which is the City of Los Angeles's Historical Monument No. 2, is located on 10110 Commerce Avenue in Tujunga, CA 91042.

Read more about this event on Village Poets blog:

http://villagepoets.blogspot.com/2013/10/ed-rosenthals-desert-hat-and-susan.html


Read an update about Ed Rosenthal's ordeal and survival on Downtown News blog by Jack Skelley with a capsule review of the book:

"Just over three years ago, after making a wrong turn on a hike, Ed Rosenthal, The Poet Broker of Downtown L.A., was lost for 6 days in Joshua Tree National Park. ... The temperature climbed above 100 degrees every day that week. Miraculously, Ed survived. Now, three years later, he has processed the experience. Beautifully. Ed has just published The Desert Hat, Survival Poems (Moonrise Press). And reading it is an astonishing experience in its own right. If Ed has just recounted his dramatic story, that would have been a good read. But Ed is a poet. He gropes for elusive meanings in his transformational desert suffering. Recurring images broaden into symbols, link, and elevate the book into, essentially, one extended poem." ~ Jack Skelley
http://jsprla.com/updates/2013/11/13/surviving-was-a-big-deal-for-downtowns-poet-broker

Ed Rosenthal at Beyond Baroque in Venice - November 10, 2013 at 8 p.m.

The first reading from The Desert Hat by Ed Rosenthal will take place at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center in Venice on Sunday, November 10, at 8 p.m.  Beyond Baroque is located on 681 Venice Blvd. in Venice, CA, next to a fire station, with limited street parking. Arrive early to find a spot!

Below is an excerpt from Beyond Baroque's website: www.beyondbaroque.org or
https://www.facebook.com/BBLitArts

DESERT HAT: SURVIVAL POEMS PUBLICATION READING

Lost in a hot, dry, rugged canyon in Joshua Tree National Park for 6 days, with no water and no food, ED ROSENTHAL, a prominent real estate broker and experienced hiker from Culver City, took out a pen and started to write on his hiking hat. Hosted by Ruth Nolan BB tickets: $10, students/seniors $6, BB members - free. Book signing.

The book is now available from Moonrise Press in paperback and eBook formats:

http://moonrisepress.com/desert.html

• Paperback edition,  $15.00 (+S&H), 74 pp.: 
•  ISBN 978-0-9819693-7-4
• eBook for iTunes or Nook, $10.00:
• ISBN 978-0-9819693-9-8

The Hat in The Desert Hat by Ed Rosenthal

Ed Rosenthal in Descanso Gardens, CA, Photo by Maja Trochimczyk

The Desert Hat  is a volume of poetry inspired by a six-and-a-half-day ordeal of Ed Rosenthal, a Poet-Broker, who survived alone after being lost in the Mojave Desert in September 2010.  An experienced hiker, he unexpectedly veered far away from his usual route and could not find his way back. He found refuge in Salvation Canyon, was several times missed by search-and-rescue aircraft and helicopters, and finally, miraculously was found by San Bernardino County Sheriff's Deputies.

The wry, surreal, and reflective poems in The Desert Hat: Survival Poems describe the spiritual trajectory of a survivor living through a close encounter with death, starting from alienation in a corporate urban environment and ending with the post-trauma reflections about life and natural environment.

The book consists of 36 poems organized in four sections, reflecting the distinct stages in the spiritual and personal journey, from getting off track, through searching for a way back, hallucination in a hostile desert environment, finding shelter in the shade of Salvation Canyon, being rescued, and experiencing the world after the return from the brink of death.  The title alludes to a canvas hat that Rosenthal used as a notebook and helped the lost poet control his thoughts, capture emotions, and write down his last will and a farewell to his wife and daughter.

The volume is illustrated with photos of the various sections of the famous hat that helped the poet survive his ordeal. He wrote messages to his family, including instructions for the wake and farewells. The photos were taken by Maja Trochimczyk in September 2013 in Descanso Gardens, along with a portrait of the poet-broker, who was wearing his lucky white shirt - it did not even get torn during the six and a half days in the desert.

Here's one of the title poems, The Hat I:

The Hat I

I got to the place out of the sun after a three day search

the first day looking for an exit, the second hiding

under a tree, the third morning of survival

A cold moon follows the blistering vision of day

I went downhill for succor, for a friend to lean against

from sun and night wind

In short-sleeve shirt and shorts I had to hide

under a clamshell rock with a split orange face

till the sun slapped me to wake again

I ran in here to the blessed salvation canyon of shadows

Seeing I would outlive that day’s sun and maybe

only another, I turned my hat to a mirror,

my pen to my blood’s red artery

“My dear wife and daughter, I lost the trail of celebration

of deals. I may never see you, read my wish and will.”

Out in a desert canyon my love poured onto nylon flaps

inside seams and creases as the mirror turned into

a bouquet of pomegranates and apricots

for a circle of friends gathered by the barbecue of stewed tomatoes, candied rice 

with roasted meats and broiled fish at my wake of smoking and carousing,

with the clink of vodka glasses,

per my will, written on my desert hat

to be executed by my beloved 

for my only child.  

__________________________________________________

ABOUT THE DESERT HAT

 In "The Desert Hat," Los Angeles poet/real estate broker Ed Rosenthal presents the mythopoetic journey through his real-life experience of being lost for 6 days in remote canyons of the Mojave Desert's Joshua Tree National Park in September, 2010. "The Desert Hat" delves deeply into the wildest and unpredictable heart of the Mojave into a storied landscape that Rosenthal renders as both recognizable to the reader and also deeply specific to his solitary and unanticipated experience, and in these poems, creates an empathetic and spiritually-affirming desert landscape that resonates within all of our desert hearts. 

 ~ Ruth Nolan 
 Professor of English @ College of the Desert 
California desert poet, writer, editor,conservationist & scholar 

 Ed Rosenthal’s The Desert Hat not only recounts an incredibly vivid story of survival, but maps out the dangerous journeys of the heart and the imagination in that hallucinatory place between mind and body, between nature and man, between the past and the future. Like poet James Wright, Rosenthal ”goes/ Back to the broken ground” of the self and finds a stranger there trapped in the cosmology of an endless, unpitying desert. As the stark “sun burns holes/ into the sky” the psyche’s true-north compass finds salvation’s shade. Rosenthal climbed out of “the busted monster’s mouth” with a beautiful, moving

book.

 ~ Elena Karina Byrne 
Executive Director of AVK Arts 
author of The Flammable Bird, Masque and Squander 

 The “poet-broker” Ed Rosenthal was inspired by surviving alone in the Mojave Desert for six and a half days. Rosenthal’s poetry does not recount his experience in detail; it is not replete with maps, photographs, and a day-by-day account of his adventures. Instead, we gain an insight into what it means to be truly lost and found, to survive the strangest of desert nights and return to the heart of the city… with a newly found wisdom and zest for life.

 ~ Maja Trochimczyk, Ph.D. 
President, Moonrise Press

_________________________________________________

The Desert Hat

Paperback print edition
ISBN 978-0-9819693-7-4

74 pages, $15.00.

 http://www.lulu.com/shop/ed-rosenthal/the-desert-hat/paperback/product-21238943.html

E-Book, $10.00

ISBN  978-0-9819693-9-8  

http://www.lulu.com/shop/ed-rosenthal/the-desert-hat/ebook/product-21239406.html   

Publisher's Spotlight on Lulu.com: 

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/moonrisepress

News about The Desert Hat by Ed Rosenthal

Forthcoming in October 2013 is the wonderful new book by Ed Rosenthal, The Desert Hat. In the words found on the Inlandia Institute's blog, and written by Ruth Nolan, Professor at College of the Desert, and California desert expert, poet, writer, and lover:

 "The story of Rosenthal’s disappearance, and survival, after six days alone in the desert’s harsh September climate was a story a story that riveted Southern California’s attention – as well as the rest of the nation’s – in headlining newspaper and news stories. Like so many others, I anxiously followed the story of his disappearance and the efforts of searchers to find him before it was too late. In addition, as a lifelong, avid back-country Mojave Desert hiker and resident, I was all too aware of the many dangers he faced, especially from exposure and heat. I remember feeling incredibly relieved, and to be honest, surprised, that he had been found alive.

 The story of how Rosenthal was lost, and found, in critical condition but alive, and soon on his way towards making a full recovery, is also a cathartic and transformational one, as rendered here in Desert Hat: Survival Poems in his own words. “The least I could do, after an experience like this, is write a decent book of poems,” he says. Desert Hat: Survival Poems is a unique desert book, even in a body of desert literature filled with life and death stories of those who have faced the southwestern desert’s hostilities.

Stories of getting lost, and barely surviving, are staples of the literature of this remotest and most little known of landscapes. For example, William Lewis Manly’s famous book Death Valley in ’49, which depicts the near-death experience of a party of pioneers who took a wrong turn and barely survived their desert crossing, to the heartbreaking short chapter in Edward Abbey’s celebrated memoir Desert Solitaire, which provides an intimate portrayal of the author’s near-death experience after barely escaping a slot canyon he got trapped in after taking a wrong turn while on a solitary hike.

 Like these other desert books, Rosenthal’s poetry collection is an entry into another world, into a heightened world of self-reflection, of profound revelations, and spiritual enlightenment; his Mojave is a desert world personified and transformed into a universal place. Of the canyon walls he found himself surrounded by, he writes, “Those were friends/Stuck in quartz embraces/Veins of orange eyes smiled.” As he wandered and searched for his car, the desert landscape transformed into a place most extraordinary, leaving an indelible impression, as rendered in another poem: “Ten miles after that turn/The sky was making magic./Turning limbs to ghostly signs/Making a prickly pear look/Like a red shirted hiker.

 These poems are the reader’s entry into the “other world” the author himself entered from the moment on a September day when he realized he was lost. In these highly imagistic poems, we are lead along on this most unusual of journeys, which is both a literal and mythopoetic one that can only be rendered by the Mojave’s mystical and labyrinthine landscape and through Rosenthal’s growing self-awareness and deepening connections with the intimacies of the desert’s private nuances, as seen through his eyes and experienced in his imagination during the time he was lost."

Ed Rosenthal (a couple of years earlier)

 Reprinted from Inlandia Institute's blog: http://localauthors.pe.com/uncategorized/the-desert-hat-survival-poems-a-true-story-of-being-lost-and-found-in-joshua-tree/

The foreward to Ed Rosenthal's new book of poetry inspired by his misadventure in the Mojave Desert, was written by Ruth Nolan, Professor of English @ College of the Desert, California desert poet, writer, editor, conservationist & scholar. Ruth is the editor of No Place for a Puritan: the literature of CA's deserts (Heyday 2009), a critically acclaimed anthology. She is also an active member of desert conservation groups, and the literary force in the landscape of the desert. Her writings are on her blog, http://ruthnolan.blogspot.com

Announcing Ed Rosenthal's The Desert Hat - Survival Poems after Being Lost in the Mojave

Moonrise Press's next publication will be a volume of poetry inspired by a six-and-a-half-day ordeal of Ed Rosenthal, a Poet-Broker, who survived alone after being lost in the Mojave Desert in September 2010.  An experienced hiker, he unexpectedly veered far away from his usual route and could not find his way back. He found refuge in Salvation Canyon, was several times missed by search-and-rescue aircraft and helicopters, and finally, miraculously was found by San Bernardino Sheriff's Deputies.

The wry, surreal, and reflective poems in The Desert Hat: Survival Poems describe the spiritual trajectory of a survivor living through a close encounter with death, starting from alienation in a corporate urban environment and ending with the post-trauma reflections about life and natural environment.

The book consists of over 30 poems organized in four sections, reflecting the distinct stages in the spiritual and personal journey, from getting off track, through searching for a way back, hallucination in a hostile desert environment, finding shelter in the shade of Salvation Canyon, being rescued, and experiencing the world after the return from the brink of death.  The title alludes to a canvas hat that Rosenthal used as a notebook and helped the lost poet control his thoughts, capture emotions, and write down his last will and a farewell to his wife and daugther.

This is Ed Rosenthal's first book-length publication. Forthcoming in 2013.

______________________________________________________________

From a review of  Meditations on Divine Names published online on Deacon's Blog in August 2012.

"The poets belong to different religions or religious denominations. They see the manifestations of the divine in many aspects of life – personal prayer, religious ceremonies, singing of psalms, family relationships, nature, sun, sky, bread making, loving, and love making. They admire the colors of the sky and the liquid nourishment of water. The clarity of mountain air and the gentleness of human touch. From the four letters of YHWH to Lada or Pele, the anthology catalogs some unusual divine names. Poets reflect on the act of naming, the facts of knowing and unknowing of our God(s). They give testimony to their hopes and beliefs, and share what they find beautiful and inspirational, or, sometimes, disturbing. There is darkness around and death, but the poets look for ways to ascend above, to illumination."

Deacon Jim on the Deacon's Blog, August 2012.

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

 

________________________

 

Photos from Descanso Gardens in La Canada

(c) 2013 by Maja Trochimczyk

Happy Easter, Passover, Norooz, Spring...

To all readers of Moonrise Press books - Best wishes for Happy Easter, Passover (passed) and Norooz (also passed)...

Here's my haiku (Japanese) for everyone celebrating the coming of the spring and new hope, new life, new beginning...

Maja Trochimczyk

the lily of our valley sings happiness in high noon sun

Saturday - Teatr Hybrydy Sing Milosz and Herbert at the Ruskin

TEATR HYBRYDY
Rushing running living

PoLISH POETRY AND MUSIC

WHO: Piano and Voice – Dominika Świątek | Narration – Bartłomiej Ardecki

Guitar – Marcin Dąbrowski | Directed by Maciej Dzięciołowski

WHERE: Ruskin Art Club, 800 S. Plymouth, Los Angeles, CA 90005

WHEN: Saturday, 9 March 2013, 6:30 p.m.

WHAT:  Music theater inspired by the poetry and music of Czeslaw Milosz, Zbigniew Herbert, Juliusz Slowacki Jacek Kaczmarski, Marian Hemar, Wladyslaw Szpilman

Performed by Dominika Świątek, Bartłomiej Ardecki and Marcin Dąbrowski. Directed by Maciej Dzięciołowski. Performed in Polish with English translations.

RSVP: Moonrise Press, c/o Maja Trochimczyk, PO Box 4288 Sunland CA 91041-4288;

$25 per person, $15 students PayPal: maja.trochimczyk@gmail.com, Tel: 818 352 4411

DIRECTIONS

North of 10, South-west of 101;

West of Crenshaw Blvd and South

Of Wilshire Blvd.  Street Parking.

Teatr Hybrydy UW is one of the oldest student theaters in Poland, the cultural heir of the legendary Hybrydy founded in 1957. In its earlier iteration,  Hybrydy was the springboard to national career of such great musicans and writers as: singers and writers Wojciech Młynarski, Jonasz Kofta, and Jan Pietrzak, and jazz musicians Urszula Dudziak, Michał Urbaniak, and Krzysztof Komeda. The re-activated Teatr Hybrydy UW is connected to Poland’s best institution of higher education, the University of Warsaw, since Hybrydy’s inception in 2005. The Hybrydy ensemble includes students and graduates of other colleges and universities, especially from the arts and music departments. Hybrydy has performed several dozen premieres and has a broad repertoire of many plays and concerts. The texts range from ambitious poetry by Herbert, Miłosz, or Słowacki, to humorous work by Mrożek, Przybora or Kaczmarski. The lighter fare includes dance and music, mystery plays, comedies, cabaret, and more. The Teatr Hybrydy UW has presented its projects in many locations in Poland and abroad, while working under the auspices of important cultural institutions in Poland. It is beloved by its audiences. 

Dominika Świątek is a singer, composer, and a Polish literature scholar. She is the co-founder of the legendary Teatr Hybrydy UW, reborn in 2005. On stage, she performs poetry and music. She issued two CDs with her compositions: Siódmy Anioł (The Seventh Angel) to the poetry of Zbigniew Herbert (issued in 2006 by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage), and Proroctwo (Prophecy) to the poetry by Juliusz Słowacki (issued in 2010 by the Senate of the Republic of Poland). Świątek created a musical evening based on the work of a Russian poet, Osip Mandelstam, premiered in 2012 by the Jewish Theater. In addition to her own works, she performs songs by Bulat Okudzawa, Jacek Kaczmarski, and, with her ensemble „Piąty Dzień” (The Fifth Day), she sings Serge Gainsbourg’s songs. She wrote music to poems by a contemporary Polish poet, Marlene Zynger and currently works on a CD to poetry by Miłosz and on another CD to include her own songs about men and women. Świątek performed in many cities in Poland, as well as in Lvov, Vilnius, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Berlin and Birmingham.

Marcin Dąbrowski, educated as a psychologist, is a graphic artist and musician. The owner of an arts agency, he writes texts and arranges music in his spare time. His musical interests started in elementary school when he encountered the work of Jacek Kaczmarski. He soon decided that his musical development would be best served by the guitar. In recent years, he participated in several dozen musical projects as a guitar player and singer. He also appears with his ensemble, where he performs the multiple roles of a lyricist, arranger, singer and guitarist.

Bartłomiej Ardecki is an actor and a student of the University of Warsaw  and of the Military Technical Academy in Warsaw. He is also established as a chef, working in several well-known Warsaw restaurants. Ardecki appeared in many performances by Teatr Hybrydy UW. He also performed in Polish films and collaborated with actors’ agencies and publicity firms.

Maciej Dzięciołowski – is a director, actor, stage designer, manager, lawyer, and a lecturer.  He graduated from the Ludwik Solski Theater University in Kraków, as well as the University of Warsaw and the Wyszyński University in Warsaw. In 2005, he co-created the re-activeated Teatr Hybrydy UW. Since 2006, he directed many spectacles and concerts, performed in Poland and abroad. In Warsaw his work was seen at Teatr Ochota, Palladium, Collegium Nobilium, Warsaw Uprising Museum, Museum of Independence, and other theaters. His shows were presented on stage in France, Austria, Russia, Canada and Lithuania. He received many scholarships and awards. In 2011 he was the recipient of the Golden Leaf for directing and writing the spectacle „Jak ty nic nie rozumiesz...” (How you do not understand anything).

Moonrise Press Presents Theater "Hybrydy" from Warsaw, Poland - March 9, 2013

TEATR HYBRYDY

Rushing running living

PoLISH POETRY AND MUSIC

WHO:  Hybrydy Student Theater of The University of Warsaw

Piano and Voice – Dominika Świątek | Narration – Bartłomiej Ardecki

Guitar – Marcin Dąbrowski | Directed by Maciej Dzięciołowski

WHERE: Ruskin Art Club, 800 S. Plymouth, Los Angeles, CA 90005

WHEN: Saturday, 9 March 2013, 6:30 p.m.

WHAT:  Music theater inspired by the poetry and music  of Czeslaw Milosz, Zbigniew Herbert, Juliusz Slowacki Jacek Kaczmarski, Marian Hemar, Wladyslaw Szpilman

Performed by Dominika Świątek, Bartłomiej Ardecki and Marcin Dąbrowski. Directed by Maciej Dzięciołowski. Performed in Polish with English translations.

RSVP: Moonrise Press, c/o Maja Trochimczyk, PO Box 4288 Sunland CA 91041-4288;

$25 per person, $15 students PayPal: maja.trochimczyk@gmail.com Tel. 818 352 4411

DIRECTIONS

North of 10, South-west of 101;

West of Crenshaw Blvd and South

Of Wilshire Blvd.  Street Parking.

TEATR HYBRYDY

GoniMy dopóki zywi

Polska POEZJA i MUZYKA

KTO:  Studencki Teatr Hybrydy Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego

Fortepian/Śpiew – Dominika Świątek | Recytacja – Bartłomiej Ardecki

Gitara – Marcin Dąbrowski | Reżyseria Maciej Dzięciołowski

GDZIE: Ruskin Art Club, 800 S. Plymouth, Los Angeles, CA 90005

KIEDY: Sobota, 9 marca 2013 r., godz. 18.30 wieczorem

CO: Teatr inspirowany poezją i muzyką Czesława Miłosza,

 Zbigniewa Herberta, Juliusza Słowackiego, Jacka Kaczmarskiego,

Mariana Hemara, Jerzego Jurandota, i Władysława Szpilmana

w wykonaniu Dominiki Świątek, Bartłomieja Ardeckiego

i Marcina Dąbrowskiego, w reżyserii Macieja Dzięciołowskiego.

Angielskie przekłady w programie.

RSVP: Moonrise Press, c/o Maja Trochimczyk,

PO Box 4288 Sunland CA 91041-4288;

$25 od osoby, $15 dla studentow

PayPal: maja.trochimczyk@gmail.com

Tel: 818 352 4411

DOJAZD

Na północ od 10, południowy zachód od 101;

na zachód od Crenshaw Blvd i na południe

od Wilshire Blvd.  Parking na ulicach.

  

Memento Vitae - Now in Spanish Translation!

The wonderful poet Elsa S. Frausto, raised in Argentina and living in Southern California, has added another link to our International Translation Project. "Memento Vitae" by Maja Trochimczyk now appears in Spanish.  We would love to find a place for it on a Spanish-language blog or poetry zine. The poem was previously published in English, Serbian, Polish and French.


Memento Vitae

Hablemos de morir.
El jadeo del último suspiro.
El fin. O quizás no.
No lo sabemos.
Hablemos del último día.
¿Qué harías si lo supieses?
¿A quién amarías?
¿Encontrarías tu más querido,
tu más secreto amor?
¿O sólo te quedarías en el círculo
que te contiene?
¿Robarías o insultarías a alguien?
¿Llorarías?
¿Quemarías tus papeles?
¿Si el tejido de tu futuro
se abreviara en un día,
o quizás sólo en una hora?
Hablemos entonces de vivir.
Tu siguiente aliento,
el que te llevará
al siguiente minuto,
al latir que sigue.
Casi- ahora.

Translation- Elsa S. Frausto
                  January 21, 2013

Elsa S. Frausto's work has appeared in many local and international publications, among them Porte des Poetes, Speechlessthemagazine, Poem of the Month in Poets at Work, Badlands and Poets on Site. She was the coordinator and host for Camelback Readings held at the Sunland-Tujunga Library. She has been a member of the Chuparosa Writers for many years and is Poetry Editor and Translator for the Spanish language literary magazine la-luciernaga.com

Memento Vitae

Let's talk about dying.
The gasp of last breath.
The end. Or maybe not,
We don't know.
Let's talk about the last day.
What would you do
if you knew?
Whom would you love?
Would you find your dearest,
most mysterious love?
Or would you just stay
in the circle of your own?
Would you rob, steal
or insult anyone?
Would you cry?
Burn your papers?
If the fabric of your future
shrank to one day,
or maybe just an hour?
Let's talk about living, then.
The next breath,
that will take you
to the next minute,
the next heartbeat.
Just about - now.

(c) 2008 by Maja Trochimczyk

The original version of this poem was published in October 2009, in the Clockwise Cat:  http://clockwisecat.blogspot.com/2009/10/two-poems-by-maja-trochimczyk.html