Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

May the blessing of light be on you—

light without and light within.

May the blessed sunlight shine on you

and warm your heart

till it glows like a great peat fire.

Not that we now know what "a great peat fire" is - 

as we are not Irish and live in the 21st century... 

But, whether we know what we are doing, or not, 

we will "muddle through somehow...." 

to quote another great song... so... 

Have Yourself a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

And once you do, enjoy some Christmas carols, in Polish and English

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-OXruY5Gx8 (Lulajze Jezuniu - Anna German)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWI-EoTfu20 (Have yourself a very Merry Christmas - Ella Fitzgerald)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI9f6oXSh64  (Chopin's Scherzo in B Minor op. 20 by Idil Biret)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzYbgDB3F18 (Lulajze Jezuniu arranged by Chopin sung by Novi Singers, jazz style)

New Poetry Titles - Beverly Collins and Marlene Hitt!

At Moonrise Press we are working very hard on editing three poetry titles. One of these books will be out before Christmas. Which one? Take your pick... and look back here in a month... We are thankful for so much talent!

BEVERLY M. COLLINS

Beverly M. Collins grew up in Westfield, New Jersey, loves amusement parks, music and traveling. Collins applies lessons she learned from Songwriter Guild of America and the National Association of Record Industry Professionals to her poetry. She is the author of the book, Quiet Observations, and one of the 2012 prize winners for the California State Poetry Society. Her work has appeared in the California Quarterly, Poetry Speaks! Year of Great Poems and Poets Calendar. (Sourcebooks, Inc.). Beverly Collins often attends many readings around town, has worked with "Poets on Site" and has featured at the Cobalt Cafe, The Talking Stick, "Unbuckled" NoHo Poetry. She is a regular at Barnes and Noble Burbank monthly readings, as well as at The VillagePoets of Sunland-Tujunga Monthly poetry Reading Series.


Next

by Beverly M. Collins

From the tip-top of January
to the bottom of every December,
life is a continuum.
May we remember to remember.

There are no platforms on which we
halt. No arrivals at which we are landing.
There is only continuous movement.
Blend motion into all planning.

Next is a good four letter word that dances
on the tongue and illuminates the playgrounds
of our minds. Next can call loudly or soft
and subtle when it chimes.

Within the cold of winter remember next comes
fragrant flowers of spring. Next reminds us
there is no be-all or end-all to anything.

When riding a high tide or if low tide has one
feeling sadness or perplexed, know true muscle
can be found in how well we just say...Next!

MARLENE HITT

Marlene Hitt was the first Poet Laureate of Sunland Tujunga. She has been a member of the Chupa Rosa Writers of Sunland-Tujunga and the Foothills since its inception in 1985. In addition to poetry chapbooks, anthologies and readings, she has authored a non-fiction book Sunland-Tujunga, from Village to City. She served at the Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga as Museum Director and is now a docent there - every Sunday! Her poetry appeared in anthologies Meditations on Divine Names (2012) and Chopin with Cherries (2010). In addition to her poetry activities, she has served as history writer for the Foothill Leader and the Glendale News Press, the North Valley Reporter, the Voice of the Village newspaper, and the Shadow Hills Property Owners Association newsletter. She co-organizes the Monthly Readings of Village Poets at the Bolton Hall Museum. She has been honored as the Woman of Achievement by the Business and Professional Women's Club. She lives happily ever after with her husband Lloyd and an outdoor cat named Lautrémont.


Though I Have No Name

by Marlene Hitt

I yearn for trees, for the scent of grasses,
for the sounds of the meadow and for summer dust.
The ocean has come up beneath us and the sky
is itself a sea that falls in great drops night and day.
This box home my husband built does not please me,
a woman whose home was clean and dry, a woman
whose home was her reason to be alive.
My husband, Noah, and our children work,
as I do, to keep the animals fed and cared for.
A litter of kittens emerged this morning
and the lioness is full with new life. Her mate
roars with the need to run and posture and strut.
I am discouraged and fear the days ahead
heavy with the threat of starvation and of
never seeing land again. This water!
Forty days and more, not ebbing at all.
My family sits staring, despondent, and it is I
the mother, who must put my own fears
in a safe hiding place, pretend that all will be well.
We will shout for joy if the elephant can be free again
to roam, and the camel, and the birds to build nests.
I wish to spend an hour talking with neighbors
from our small village, of singing on the Sabbath.
Now, in this wet word turned up side down
we all wait. We all wait. We all wait.

Forthcoming Poetry Books by Mina Kirby and Marlene Hitt

Moonrise Press will publish volumes by two Southern-California based poets: Mina Kirby and Marlene Hitt.  Both volumes are in preparation and will be finalized in 2015. They belong to the series of books by female poets that will be issued by the Moonrise Press.

MINA KIRBY 

Mina Kirby is a retired mathematics professor. She has survived a broken washing machine, a broken back and a broken heart, all of which provide rich material for writing poetry and stories. She has for many years been a folk singer and sometimes songwriter. Plagued with health problems in recent years, her writing is part of coming back to life. Mina is the author of several books, including Mathematical Dreams: Songs about Mathematics, a cookbook, and eight chap books. Her poetry has been included in Red Lights (tanka), The San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, and Poetry and Cookies. She has presented her poetry at a number of venues, including Pasadena Art Talk. She lives in Altadena with her husband, daughter, two cats, a pet rat, and too many spiders.

A Special Place

by Mina Kirby

It is warm here

Golden rays of sunshine

brighten green fields

fragrant with yellow flowers

The air sparkles

with hums of bees

and chirps of soaring birds

A gentle breeze ruffles my hair

In the distance

are sounds of an ocean’s roar

as it splashes against rocks

I could be here

yesterday

tomorrow

and today

I could be here in the sun

and the softly falling rain

in the cheerful daylight

and in the velvety darkness

I could be here with you

feel the warmth of your hand in mine

talk until the moon goes down

and stars sparkle in the night sky

We could walk

for miles and miles

absorbing the beauty

surrounding us

Or

I could be here alone

a little sadder

but content

as perhaps

some day

I will

cloaked in sunshine

remembering you

_____________________________________

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. In addition to poetry chapbooks, anthologies and readings, she has authored a non-fiction book "Sunland-Tujunga, from Village to City". She serves at the Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga as Museum Director and docent. In addition to her poetry activities, she has served as history writer for the Foothill Leader and the Glendale News Press, the North Valley Reporter, the Voice of the Village newspaper, and the Shadow Hills Property Owners Association newsletter. She has been honored as the Woman of Achievement by the Business and Professional Women's Club. She lives happily ever after with her husband Lloyd and an outdoor cat named Lautrémont.

SALT OF THE EARTH

Was I born with a curse, I the curious child?
Eyes, ears, fingers cursed?
My view sweeps over, above, below and behind,
I want to see.
A roar turns me to it, a bang turns my head.
The darkness of the desert engulfs me, I touch it
and it collides with my young body.

Today the earth shook and shook, tore itself
apart, threw out fire and brimstone.
Don’t look back, he told me, with
no explanation. My head turned of its own accord.
The grey blue of the Dead Sea was shattered
with its shaking, a river of fire poured forth
and I did watch it all, why should I not see
a thing never before seen?

Don’t look back, he’d said to me, at the evil
of Sodom and Gomorrah, 
run, he said, then he pulled me along.
It is said that I was covered with fire and brimstone.
There is a rumor that I yearned for the city
but I didn’t. An attack on my self that 
I did not obey!
I am a curious woman, that was my sin.

I have stood here for years and years mourning
my chance at life, my children, I, now 
the pillar of salt in the desert, stiff, my face
glistening these thousands of years.
It is said that my face wears resignation.
I see, I watch, all the days of all the years.
I watch a nation and I do see.

© 2007 Marlene Hitt

Ed Rosenthal reads from "The Desert Hat" at the Cobalt Cafe

On Tuesday, July 22, 2014, Ed Rosenthal read from his book of survival poems, The Desert Hat, published by Moonrise Press in 2013. The host, Rick Lupert created a broadside with one of Ed's poems that was available to all the listeners at the event.  More details about the book may be viewed on "The Desert Hat" website. 

Ed Rosenthal - Featured Poet at the Cobalt Cafe, July 22 at 8 pm

Poet- broker and the author of "Desert Hat"  Ed Rosenthal will be featured at the Cobalt Cafe on July 22, 2014, at 8:00 p.m.  The Cafe is located at: 22047 Sherman Way, Canoga Park, CA 91303. Cross street: Topanga Canyon Road (halfway between 101 and 118, the Cafe is to the West of Topanga Canyon Rd)

Ed will read from the "Desert Hat" and a broadside with one of his poems will be available for purchase.  "The Desert Hat" -  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.

To read more about this book visit: http://moonrisepress.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-hat-in-desert-hat-by-ed-rosenthal.html. To purchase your copy of the book visit: http://www.lulu.com/shop/ed-rosenthal/the-desert-hat/paperback/product-21238943.html 

The weekly reading series at the Cobalt Cafe in Canoga Park, California, hosted since 1994 by Los Angeles poet Rick Lupert. Come by any Tuesday night. The Cobalt opens at 7:30 pm on Tuesdays. The reading starts at 8:00 pm. Sign up for the open reading before 9:00 pm. One drink minimum. (Sodas, bottled water, chips and candy. No Alcohol.) 7 minutes maximum at the microphone. All ages. No content restrictions.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/103686959678211/

New Review of Meditations on Divine Names in the Polish Review

Prof. Grazyna Kozaczka, specialist in Polish American literature, has reviewed "Meditations for Divine Names" for The Polish Review (vol. 58 no. 4, 2013).

She writes: "Meditations on Divine Names" ...  offers rich poetic material selected and collected with great sensitivity, by an editor for whom religious belief was not a given, but rather the result of conscious search.  Its 140 poems by sixty-four authors represent a variety of religious faiths.  The title of this anthology points to some crucial concepts.  In several world mythologies, the act of naming, the act that involves language, takes on the power of creation. One can certainly find parallels here with poetic acts of creation. Likewise, many of the poems chosen by Trochimczyk represent thoughtful meditations, prayers or thoughtful incantations that allow the reader a total immersion in the spiritual and move the reader to the emotional response to, and relationship with, the divine.” (p.  109). 

The book is available from international booksellers, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other distributors:

Meditations on Divine Names, ed. Maja Trochimczyk, 2012.

Chopin with Cherries in Paris and in the Polish Review

Maja Trochimczyk reads her poetry in Paris

Two poems from the Chopin with Cherries anthology, published in 2010, made it to rainy Paris this spring.  During the artistic salon at the end of Maria Szymanowska Conference held in April 2014 at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Paris, I read "Harvesting Chopin" in English, and "A Study with Cherries" in Polish and English. Since I have just reprinted the "Harvesting Chopin" on the Poetry Laurels blog, let's read again the cherries. Its translation was problematic from one point of view. The fruit in the title is "wisnia" - dark red and sour, and very fragrant and juicy, perfect for confitures, jams, cakes... The Polish word I selected for translation is "czeresnia" - a larger, more fleshy and far sweeter fruit that does not convert so well into preservers and jams, because with the addition of sugar, its sweetness becomes overpowering. But "Czeresnia" sounds more like "Chopin" and "Cherries" so "czeresnia" it will be.

A Study with Cherries

Maja Trochimczyk

          After Etude in C Major, Op. 10, No. 1 and the cherry orchard

                of my grandparents, Stanisław and Marianna Wajszczuk

I want a cherry,

a rich, sweet cherry

to sprinkle its dark notes

on my skin, like rainy preludes

drizzling through the air.

Followed by the echoes

of the piano, I climb

a cherry tree to find rest

between fragile branches 

and relish the red perfection –

morning cherry music.

Satiated, sleepy,

I hide in the dusty attic.

I crack open the shell

of a walnut to peel

the bitter skin off,

revealing white flesh –

a study in C Major.

Tasted in reverie,

the harmonies seep

through light-filled cracks

between weathered beams

in Grandma’s daily ritual

of Chopin at noon.

Etiuda z Czereśniami

 Inspiracja Etiuda C-Dur, Op. 10, No. 1 i wisniowym sadem mojego dziadka i babci, Stanisława i Marianny Wajszczuk

A ja chcę czereśnie

Słodziutkie czereśnie

Chce poczuć ciemne nuty soku

Na mojej skórze

Jak krople deszczowego preludium

W mżawce poranka

W obłoku fortepianu

Wspinam się na czereśnię

Szukam ukojenia wśród kruchych gałęzi

Cieszę się doskonałością czerwieni

Czereśniową muzyką od samego rana

Nasycona, śpiąca

Chowam się w ciemnościach strychu

By łupać orzechy, obierać gorzką skórkę

Odsłaniać biały miąższ

Studium w tonacji C-dur

Smakuję marzenia

Akordy płyną przez szpary

Starych belek wypełnione światłem

To codzienny rytuał mojej Babuni

Popołudnie z Chopinem

CHOPIN WITH CHERRIES REVIEWED

The poem and other Chopin-themed poetry is available in the 2010 anthology, Chopin with Cherries, that was recently reviewed by Grazyna Kozaczka in The Polish Review (vol. 58, no. 4), 2014.  Among other comments, Prof. Kozaczka had the following things to say about the book:

"The book's striking title brings the reader to Trochimczyk's own poem, "A Study with Cherries," where the musical motifs of one of Chopin's etudes transport the poet across space and time to the cherry orchard of her grandparents in Poland and offer her peace and fulfillment.... In Chopin with Cherries: A Tribute in Verse, just a glance at the chapter headings identifies the poetic interests in Chopin. Thus poets find inspiration in a particular musical genre such as waltzes, mazurkas, or nocturnes; they become fascinated by Chopin's life, illness, and death, and his relationship to George Sand; and, finally, they explore their own emotional responses to hearing or playing Chopin's music...." 

The reviewer was equally fascinated with visual illustrations from vintage postcards, revealing late 19th-century sensibilities associated with Chopin's music and its expressive world. 

National Poetry Month with Village Poets and "Meditations" on April 5 in Tujunga

Celebrate the National Poetry Month with a reading by the Village Poets at the Sunland-Tujunga Library. The reading will be held at the Library on Saturday, April 5, at 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.

 The Library is located at 7771 Foothill Blvd., Tujunga CA 91042, tel. (818) 352-4481.

The reading will feature poetry from Moonrise Press books: Meditations on Divine Names (2012) and Chopin with Cherries (2010). Three group poems will provide a framework to the program: Riddles in the Rain - group poem, Enrollment by Joe DeCenzo, and The Veil, The Weave by Maja Trochimczyk.

 

The Village Poets is a group of former Poets-Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga that organizes monthly Village Poets readings at Bolton Hall Museum (villagepoets.blogspot.com), and that also sponsor the bi-annual search for the new Poet-Laureate of the community.

Poets:
• Marlene Hitt, the first Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga and the author of several chapbooks;
• 
  
• Joe DeCenzo, past Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga and a Department of Cultural Affairs grant recipient whose published works include The Ballad of Alley and Hawk; 
• 
  
• Dorothy Skiles, the present Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga, whose writing has appeared in a variety of publications and anthologies; and 
• 
  
• Dr. Maja Trochimczyk, past Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga, the founder of Moonrise Press that published three volumes of poetry and two anthologies, and author of over 200 published poems. 

The Village Poets will be joined on this occasion by two guest poets: Dr. Mira Mataric, Serbian-American poet and writer, recipient of numerous awards and honors, author of 36 books (and counting), and Elsa S. Frausto, newly selected to serve as the Eight Poet Laureate of Sunland Tujunga.

Chopin with Cherries - Poetry in Music, Music in Poetry

This volume of poetry celebrates the 200th birth anniversary of Polish pianist-composer, Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849). Ninety-one poets are represented here; they live in the U.S., England, France, Mexico, the Philippines and Poland - with family roots in Poland, Australia, China, France, India, Italy, Malta, Mexico, the Philippines, Serbia, and other countries. The anthology includes more than 122 poems in English, and one important Polish poem, Cyprian Kamil Norwid's Fortepian Szopena, in a new English translation by Leonard Kress (this is the first English translation of Norwid's masterpiece, considered too difficult even by the translator of his entire oeuvre, Adam Czerniawski). English-language classics include verse by T. S. Elliot, Emma Lazarus and Amy Lowell.

For the great German expatriate poet, Henrich Heine, who shared Parisian exile years with the composer, Chopin was "the great genius tone-poet" (1837). The search for the "poetic" in Chopin's music persisted over the years. Numerous poets dedicated their work to the "eternal eloquence, immortal pain" (phrases from Emma Lazarus, 19th century) or "nothing but moonlight" found in Chopin's music (a phrase from the composer's lover, writer George Sand). The latter expression was cited by poets Milicent Borges Accardi and Susan Rogers in the current collection. Chopin with Cherries brings together a variety of approaches and poetic forms, such as free verse, letter-poems, villanelle, sonnet, rhymed poems in couplets, prose poetry, and tanka.

Reading at Azusa Pacific University, 2010. Photo by Gene Schultz

Some poets write about details from Chopin's life, women he loved, Wodzinska and Sand, as well as the circumstances of his illnesses and death. Others focus on his music - on its meaning as a symbol of fragile beauty in the modern world, or on the emotional impact of individual pieces. Nocturnes are particularly popular as a genre (16 poems), but three miniatures attracted the greatest attention: the Prelude in D-flat Major, Op. 28, No. 15 "Raindrop" (5 poems), the Waltz in D-flat Major, Op. 64, No. 1 "Minute Waltz" (6 poems, including a cowboys' dance), and the Waltz in A Minor, Op. Posthumous (4 poems). Chopin is heard everywhere: in a Parisian church (Rick Lupert), on the plains of North Dakota (Thom Tamarro), in Ohio (Donna L. Emerson), in his birthplace in Zelazowa Wola (Margaret C. Szumowski), and on the radio (Ryan McLellan).

Marian Shapiro considers the meaning of Chopin's art "as if each measure were a casual ripple in a spring stream of melting centuries." Australian-born poet Katrin Talbot envisions Chopin's music as an accusation for our failures:"'Why didn't you . . . ? Why did you . . . ?'" John Guzlowski writes about Chopin's music replacing traumatic memories of "the hollow surge and dust of German tanks" ("A Good Death"). Ruth Nolan hears Chopin in the desert, "between the spaces of darkness and sound, blown across the sand dunes into magnificence." Poets fondly remember playing or listening to the music associated with their childhood, evoking moments of happiness and feelings of nostalgia or loss (Trochimczyk's "A Study with Cherries" that gave rise to the title of the collection).

Reading at the Ruskin Art Club, May 2010. Wojciech Kocyan

Maja Trochimczyk and Edward Hoffman of Krakusy.

A Study with Cherries

After Etude in C Major, Op. 10, No. 1 and a cherry orchard of my grandparents, Maria Anna and Stanislaw Wajszczuk

I want a cherry,
a rich, sweet cherry
to sprinkle its dark notes
on my skin, like rainy preludes
drizzling through the air.
Followed by the echoes
of the piano,  I climb
 a cherry tree to find rest
 between fragile branches
 and relish the red perfection -
morning cherry music.

Satiated, sleepy,
I hide in the dusty attic.
 I crack open the shell of a walnut
 to peel the bitter skin off,
 revealing white flesh -
a study in C Major.

Tasted in reverie,
 the harmonies seep through
 light-filled cracks
 between weathered beams
 in Grandma's daily ritual
of Chopin at noon.

 (c) 2010 by Maja Trochimczyk

Reading at Loyola College of Chicago, November 2010.

Reviews 

 CHRISTOPHER WOODS, FEBRUARY 2011: "For those who have been moved by the music of Fryderyk Chopin, this new international anthology will be a treat... One breathtaking aspect of the anthology is the diversity of voices, both stylistically and geographically... [Among] the striking aspects of the anthology is the way in which the editor, Polish born Maja Trochimczyk, arranges the various sections, not only by musical forms, but also into sections like beauty and death, words that often come to mind when considering Chopin's life, his passions and his early demise." Christopher Woods in Contemporary World Literature no. 5 (February 2011).

 ELIZABETH KANSKI, SEPTEMBER 2010: "In Poland, June is the month for Bing cherries (czeresnie) and July for sour cherries (wisnie), but it is Chopin season year-round, especially in 2010, the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great composer. Maja Trochimczyk, Polish American music historian, poet and photographer, decided to celebrate Chopin's birthday in an unconventional manner: with 123 poems by 92 poets, gathered together into a handsomely produced and exciting new anthology." From a review by Elizabeth Kanski, in the Polish American Journal, September 2010, p. 21.

ALLISON ROSS, MAY 2010: "What is most striking about this verse tribute is how deftly the editor weaves together the various themes, treatments and styles within the volume, meticulously detailed in the introduction and then presented format-wise in the book... All in all, I am immensely pleased with how this anthology turned out. In fact, it exceeded my expectations, because it is so comprehensive and cohesive. The poems are fascinatingly diverse in voice, topic, content, and style, and the poems reveal such richly individualistic interpretations of Chopin's powerful pathos. . . "Chopin with Cherries" is an anthology to treasure as intimately as one might cherish Chopin's compositions. From Cherry-fully Chopin (Book Review)" by Alison Ross, in Clockwise Cat, May 27, 2010

JOHN Z. GUZLOWSKI, FEBRUARY 2010: "Maja Trochimczyk's Chopin with Cherries... is a masterful celebration of this composer and the complex range of emotions, impressions, memories, and dreams his music evokes... Finally, let me say that I cannot remember reading an anthology of poems centered around a single-theme that I liked more. The poems Maja Trochimczyk has gathered together to commemorate Chopin's 200th birthday are inspiring and exhilarating, as I have already noted, and - I don't know how else to say this - fun to read." John Z. Guzlowski in The Cosmopolitan Review 2 no. 1 (Spring 2010).

The review is accompanied by a selection of poems from the book including works by: Kerri Buckley, Ryan McLellan, Rick Lupert, Elizabeth Murawski, Ruth Nolan, William Pillin, Katrin Talbot, and Maja Trochimczyk.

 List of Poets 

The poets in Chopin with Cherries include: Millicent Borges Accardi, Austin Alexis, Lucy Anderton, Sheila Black, George Bodmer, Lia Brooks, Kerri Buckley, Allison Campbell, Peggy Castro, Sharon Chmielarz, Victor Contoski, Clark Crouch, Beata Pozniak Daniels, Jessica Day, Diane Shipley DeCillis, Lori Desrosiers, Charlie Durrant, T. S. Eliot, David Ellis, Donna L. Emerson, Charles Ades Fishman, Jennifer S. Flescher, Gretchen Fletcher, Linda Nemec Foster, Emily Fragos, Jarek Gajewski, Helen Graziano, John Z. Guzlowski, Lola Haskins, Shayla Hawkins, Elizabyth A. Hiscox, Marlene Hitt, Roxanne Hoffman, Laura L. Mays Hoopes, Ben Humphrey, Carol J. Jennings, Charlotte Jones, Lois P. Jones, Georgia Jones-Davis, Christine Klocek-Lim, Jean L. Kreiling, Leonard Kress, Emma Lazarus, Marie Lecrivain, Jeffrey Levine, Amy Lowell, R. Romea Luminarias, Rick Lupert, Radomir V. Luza, Mira N. Mataric, Ryan McLellan, Anna Maria Mickiewicz, Elisabeth Murawski, Ruth Nolan, Cyprian Kamil Norwid, Rosemary O'Hara, Dean Pasch, Nils Peterson, Richard Pflum, William Pillin, Kenneth Pobo, Carrie A. Purcell, Marilyn N. Robertson, Susan Rogers, Alison Ross, Mary Rudge, Russell Salamon, Gabriel Shanks, Marian Kaplun Shapiro, Joseph Somoza, Lusia Slomkowska, Kathi Stafford, Maxine R. Syjuco, Fiona Sze-Lorrain, Margaret C. Szumowski, Katrin Talbot, Taoli-Ambika Talwar, Thom Tammaro, Mark Tardi, Cheryl M. Thatt, Tammy L. Tillotson, Maja Trochimczyk, Helen Vandepeer, Devi Walders, Erika Wilk, Martin Willitts, Jr., Kath Abela Wilson, Leonore Wilson, Meg Withers, Anne Harding Woodworth, and Marianne Worthington.

Poetry of Valentines, Love, and Roses

Happy Valentine's Day to all happy and unhappy lovers. All lovers should be happy, even if their love is gone, dead, or lost in the mist of time. It is the supreme gift of having been able to feel what generations of poets have felt, from the divine Sappho until today...

For lovers of love poetry, Maja Trochimczyk's Rose Always - A Court Love Story was all in dew-drop rose-red, and filled with love poetry of delight, desire, fulfillment, and heartbreak. All versions of this book were withdrawn in 2018.

"This novella in verse is a tragedy; intense love against betrayal...Love is a strange truth--no two loves are the same. There are spiritual depths in each being. It is astonishing to see a woman's soul clearly in public in the white heat of love, the thought light of kisses sparkling on skin, the departure point into worlds. Even after it seemed lost her love takes a deeper spiritual form; she continues to love..." ~ Russell Salamon

Rose Always - No. 58

I’ve never done so much

to destroy a love, yet it lives on,

lingers in the corners of my soul,

explodes like summer fire, joy ineffable

con moto, agitato

I’ve never seen so much beauty

in one body, outlined by a halo of grace,

smooth lover’s sweat at midnight,

bright morning sunrays, light invincible

sotto, colla voce

I’ve never felt so much

desire, blinding me to all

but your heartbeat, the warm touch

of your strength, dangerous charm

semplicemente

I’ve never dreamed so much

of a happy future, two strangers

who share nothing, just surprise

at the unthinkable bliss of chance

molto scherzando

I’ve never loved so much  

(c) 2011 by Maja Trochimczyk

For lovers of love's wisdom in poetry, Maja Trochimczyk's Miriam's Iris, or Angels in a Garden, describes a life trajectory from homesickness, through romance, grief, and reconciliation with the most beautiful of loves, found only with the Angel called Sophia, the Divine Wisdom. This book, too, found its admirers among reviewers. 

Paperback Edition: ISBN 978-0-578-00166-1
Preview on Google Books: Miriam Preview
Hardcover with Color Photos: ISBN 978-0-9819693-2-9 

EBook (PDF) from lulu.com: ISBN 978-0-9819693-2-9

"Rarely does one find a book of poetry which holds together as well as Miriam's Iris. Although presented as a collection of individual poems, it reads like it was composed as a whole, as a single poem of multiple parts. . .Miriam's Iris is a strong demonstration of how poetry can evoke emotion without getting bogged down in the details of one's affairs. Along the way it provides some wisdom about finding one's place, accepting what one is given." (G. Murray Thomas in Poetix.net, Feburary 2010)

Amor 6 

 the more I love

 the more dangerous 

life becomes 

in its graphic beauty 

carved with a dagger 

stolen from time 

 the blade cuts 

old wounds open 

 it slides on the skin 

of the moment 

 pierced by knowing

 © 2006 by Maja Trochimczyk

For lovers of life itself, and the miracle of living on our planet, surrounded by the loved ones that we sometimes appreciate only if we are truly lost, Ed Rosenthal's The Desert Hat will be a delight, with its incredible story of a true loss - wandering through the Mojave Desert for six days, he wrote love messages for his wife and daughter on his hat. He somehow had a pencil with him, and not a piece of paper or a notebook. The hat is destined for a museum of human spirit. The book - for your shelf or some reading device.

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

eBook for iTunes or Nook, $10.00: ISBN 978-0-9819693-9-8

"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

If all this is not enough, readers may found lots of love poems, and roses, at the following issues of blogs.

POETRY LAURELS

Maja Trochimczyk blog, first documenting her tenure as Poet-Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga, and later whatever catches her poetic fancy, including a series of post on love, the Valentine's Day, and roses.

poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2013/09/rose-poems-from-shadows-leaves-roses.html

http://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2013/06/on-irony-and-love-songs-with-grapefruit.html

http://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-history-of-love-and-roses.html

http://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2011/05/roses-and-roses-without-end.html

http://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2011/02/timeless-after-desire-love-on.html

http://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2011/02/what-is-love-valentines-day-reflections.html

CHOPIN WITH CHERRIES

Stories of Chopin's love letters, his interests in roses, violets, his failed love affairs and sublime music. Illustrations include Redoute's engravings of roses.

http://chopinwithcherries.blogspot.com/2014/02/chopins-roses-and-violets-and-spring.html

http://chopinwithcherries.blogspot.com/2013/02/on-chopins-roses-for-valentines-day.html

http://chopinwithcherries.blogspot.com/2012/02/chopins-valentines-and-his-letters.html