The Pushcart Prize Nominations from Moonrise Press 2021

Nominations to Pushcart Prize for Best of the Small Presses were submitted for the following poems and short prose published by Moonrise Press: 

• Cindy Rinne: “No Shortness of Breath” from Today in the Forest, 2021
• Maja Trochimczyk: “A Song for a Key”, “Soap Bubbles,” and “The 23rd of July”  from The Rainy Bread: More Poems from Exile, expanded edition, 2021.

CONGRATULATIONS!

https://moonrisepress.blogspot.com/2021/02/today-in-forest-new-book-by-cindy-rinne.html

No Shortness of Breath

I.

Sierra mule deer looks deep into brother’s chestnut eyes. Young, but he sees gentleness and a respect for nature. Deer, gatekeeper to the high places, allows brother and sister to pass.

II.

Brother fears owl and feels less afraid with deer. Ready to climb, his pudgy foot slips a couple times on smooth, granite boulders. The wind threatens to take his hat. Be careful, says sister from below. Brother pictures the grace of deer as he scrapes his short fingers. The air is thin, but easy for him to breathe. The incense cedars and white pines arch in biting winds. Brother inhales their spicy smell and takes another step.

Cindy Rinne

San Bernardino, California

 

https://moonrisepress.com/the-rainy-bread-by-maja-trochimczyk.html

ISBN 978-1-945938-47-4 Paperback with color photos, 124 pp. $40.00 plus shipping

 ISBN 978-1-945938-01-6   EBook, expanded version $8.00

https://moonrisepress.blogspot.com/2021/04/the-rainy-bread-poems-from-exile-by.html

https://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2021/10/trochimczyks-rainy-bread-more-poems.html

≡ A SONG FOR A KEY ≡

                 ~ for Jan Jakub Kolski and his Mother

This is a key.

This is an iron key.

This is a large, iron key.

This is an old, large, iron key.

A key my mother carried in her purse.

This is an old, large, wrought-iron key my mother 

carried in her purse every single day.

This is a field.

This is a flat field.

This is a flat, empty field.

This is a flat, empty field in the Ukraine

that used to be Poland. A flat, empty field 

where my mother’s house once stood, surrounded 

by a tall wooden fence with a tall wooden gate, 

and a solid, large, wrought-iron lock.

They told her: pack!

They told her: go!

They told her: out!

You do not belong.

This is our land.

There is not house.

There is no fence.

There is no gate.

This is the key.

≡ SOAP BUBBLES ≡

The sky is the color of soap bubbles

that Grandpa makes on the porch of old wooden house

in the village, the house with a peaked roof 

and three-panel shutters on each window, 

closed only for winter storms and departures, almost never –

The straws are tricky to make – of golden rye,

cut between joints, with the tip quartered

and bent into a miniature cross of Malta.

We hold our straws gingerly, in a solemn ritual

of dipping them in a dish of lukewarm water 

with a piece of brown soap, then lifting the tips up

and exhaling air slowly, carefully – until

the bubble, like the soul of a plum or an apple,

detaches, becomes spherical, and floats away.

Iridescent, translucent – oscillating from pink, 

to blue, to gold, to periwinkle. Yes, the sky before

sunset is the color of soap bubbles. I make 

a shiny sphere and watch its upward progress, 

on a meandering path through warm summer sky, until

it bursts in a sudden gust of wind. The pang 

of disappointment is real – it melts away 

only when another bubble is ready

to ascend on its random, weightless pathway. 

We count them, one by one, keeping the score.

In times of trouble, make soap bubbles 

and watch them float on air currents. Away.

Into the unknown. The size of a plum or an apple,

iridescent, translucent – oscillating

from pink, to blue, to gold, to periwinkle. 

They float away – specks of joy up in the sky – 

here just for a moment, until they disappear 

in ever more distant, misty evening sky.

 

≡ THE 23RD OF JULY ≡

is the day of clearing karma 

untying knots on the thread of fate,

breaking enchantments, reversing curses.

Look at the moon, blood-red and broken 

above the hilltop, huge like ancient pain 

passed on through generations.

It follows you, as you drive home

after resting in the silver mist of the ocean,

its waves — turquoise and jade —

always moving, yet always the same —

Look, the moon hides behind the black ridge

of despair, only a soft spot remains, 

shimmering on alien indigo sky. The road turns,

you fly along 80 miles per hour, singing a Chopin's Nocturne -

its lustrous cascade of notes split apart

by a sudden apparition — a majestic, 

white platinum orb, suspended in darkness.

You remember that rust-red, once-in-the-lifetime

moon of prophecy, the fox moon that foretold disaster 

as it led you back from Paso Robles, Solvang, Santa Rosa, 

on the way into disillusionment and regret.

It was hard to understand. Harder to believe in 

the existence of such twisted, demonic selfishness

masquerading as affection. Pitiful.

 

Yet the healing was real. The lesson’s learned.

The karma’s cleared. It is done.

The moon now floats high above the valley

in its bright halo, distant and indifferent.

You've discovered the virtue of detachment.

You've seen how desires of the heart

led you astray. Your life - an illumination.

Like a moonbeam, glowing on cobalt waters 

of the Pacific, your path ahead is straight — 

clear — dazzling — brilliant —

A Starchild, born to shine, you are blessed 

by the moon's radiance on this magical 

summer evening of July 23rd.

You found your home. The New Age has begun.

Available in Polish - 50th Anniversary Album of Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club

http://moonrisepress.com/album-50-lecia-klubu.html

Album 50-lecia Klubu Kultury im. Heleny Modrzejewskiej

Ed. by Maja Trochimczyk, Elzbieta Kanski and Elzbieta Trybus

Free PDF Download. 33.4MB

ISBN 978-10945938-50-4. Color Hardcover, $164.00. 

ISBN 978-1-945038-51-1. Color Paperback, $55.00.

380 pages, large format 8.5 by 11 in. with color photos.

Modjeska Club members and guests after Maja Trochimczyk's lecture about Modjeska at 

Laguna Art Museum, March 2019. The museum donated the large Modjeska banner to the Club.

Moonrise Press is pleased to announce the publication of the history of the Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club, in Polish (July 2021). Edited by dr. Maja Trochimczyk, Elżbieta Kanski and dr. Elżbieta Trybuś, this 380-page volume documents 50 years of cultural activities of the Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club in Los Angeles, established in 1971 by actor-director Leonidas Dudarew-Ossetyński and other Polish emigres.

Club members at 1976 event with the Theater Eskulap from Warsaw, Residence of  President 

and Founder Leonidas Dudarew-Ossetynski, October 1976. Photograph donated to Club Archives 

by the founder's daughter, Valerie Dudarew-Ossetynski Hunken.

The Club is named after a famous Polish actress Helena Modrzejewska (1840-1909) who emigrated to California in 1876, changed her stage name to Modjeska and became one of the most important Shakespearean actresses of her generation. 

The Club's logo with Helena Modjeska. Cover design for 1997 website by Ewa Chodkiewicz-Swider.

The Club honored its patron in a variety of ways, including lectures, theatrical and film premieres, unrealized plans to build monuments to her (based on designs by Stanislaw Szukalski and Tomasz Misztal), and the Modjeska Prizes bestowed on eminent Polish and Polish American actors since 2010.

Jadwiga Inglis's article about  the 30th anniversary of the Club, 2002.

​The album consists of essays, interviews, reviews, reminiscences and lists of club's events, including lectures, film screenings, theatrical performances, concerts, cabarets, and more. It is richly illustrated with color photographs taken over the 50 years of the Modjeska Club's history. 

Modjeska Club members singing Christmas Carols in 2013.

Texts by: Anna Maria Anders, Tadeusz Bociański, Krysta Close, Dorota Czajka-Olszewska, Zofia Czajkowska, Witold Czajkowski, Zofia Cybulska-Adamowicz, Leonidas Dudarew-Ossetyński, Jadwiga Inglis, Michal Jasień, Tomasz Kachelski, Elżbieta Kański, Krystyna Kuszta, Jarosław Łasiński, Andrzej Maleski, Dr. Mira N. Mataric, Marta Ojrzyńska, Maria Pilatowicz, Edward Piłatowicz, Dr. Kleofas Rundzio, Andrzej Seweryn, Katarzyna Śmiechowicz, Jan Świder, Dr. Maja Trochimczyk, Dr. Elżbieta Trybuś and Jolanta Zych. 

Modjeska Club members and guess at The Real Poetry of Cosmos event with 

five Polish engineers, at Van Harman Auditorium of JPL/NASA, 2011.

The publication of this volume was made possible by a grant from the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Los Angeles, and the generous support of Moonrise Press. 

"The Rainy Bread: More Poems from Exile" by Maja Trochimczyk, New Expanded Edition

https://www.lulu.com/account/projects/12jyvn85

E-book: ISBN 978-1-945938-01-6, $8.00, expanded edition, April 2021

Color paperback: ISBN 978-1-945938-47-4, 124 pages, 60 poems, 14 pages of photos, $40.00

The Rainy Bread: More Poems from Exile, a poetry collection by Maja Trochimczyk has been enlarged by 30 poems and reorganized into six parts. An updated e-book  and color paperback editions are available. 

The book now includes 63 poems about forgotten stories of Poles living under the Soviet and German occupation during WWII, especially in the Eastern Borderlands of Kresy. They were killed, deported, imprisoned, or oppressed after the invasion of Poland by Germany on September 1, 1039 and by the invasion by the Soviet Union on September 17, 1939. Some of these brief portraits capture the trauma and resilience, ordeals and miraculous survival stories of the author’s immediate family. Their experiences of displacement, hunger, cold, and poverty during the war are typical of Polish civilians. 

Author's Grandma Maria Anna Wajszczuk, b. Wasiuk (1906-1973)

These fictionalized fact-based memories are coupled with depictions of survival of other Poles deported to Siberia, the Arctic Circle, or Kazakhstan; those left the Soviet Union with the Second Corps of the Polish Army under the command of General Władysław Anders; those who were transported to refugee camps in India or Africa; and ended up in Argentina, Canada, Australia or the U.S.

A monument to Polish civilians shot by Germans during Warsaw Uprising.

The book is a companion to “Slicing the Bread” (2014), with which it shares some poems, including vignettes from the author’s childhood in Warsaw. Organized into six parts - Destinations, Nowhere, Hunger Years, Resilience, There and Back, What Remains, the updated book follows a trajectory of descent into the hell of deportations, imprisonment, hunger, mass murder, and ascent into resilience and survival. The dark rain of sorrow changes into the diamond rain of delight with life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Maja Trochimczyk, Ph.D., is a Polish American poet, music historian, photographer, and author of seven books on music, most recently “Gorecki in Context: Essays on Music” (2017) and “Frédéric Chopin: A Research and Information Guide” (co-edited with William Smialek, rev. ed., 2015). She currently serves as the President of the California State Poetry Society, managing editor of the California Quarterly, and President of the Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club in Los Angeles, promoting Polish culture in California. Trochimczyk’s nine books of poetry include “Rose Always,” “Miriam’s Iris,” “Slicing the Bread,” “Into Light”, and four anthologies, “Chopin with Cherries” (2010), “Meditations on Divine Names” (2012), “Grateful Conversations: A Poetry Anthology” (2018) and “We Are Here: Village Poets Anthology” (2020). This is her ninth poetry collection.

Nike - Monument to Warsaw Uprising, Warsaw, 2014.

SAMPLE NEW POEMS

≡ PANI BASIA ≡

~ in memoriam Barbara Wysocka, “Irma” soldier in the Warsaw 

   Uprising, prisoner of Stutthof Camp (1927-1997) 

Who was this stranger at Christmas Eve dinners? 

A tall, stern lady who did not smile or talk to children. 

Distinguished. Distant. Too stiff for hugging. 

She looked at us as if from another planet. 

She ate her food slowly, methodically,

relishing each sip of the hot beet soup, 

gingerly picking fishbones out of carp in aspic. 

An aura of loneliness spread out around her. 

Why did Mom take her for vacation to Abu Dhabi,

on an exotic adventure, to see red sands, palms, camels?

The answer waited for decades in packets 

of old letters, medals earned during the war. 

She was “Irma,” a teen liaison for Division Baszta 

in Mokotów. Fought to the end, Warsaw’s fall. 

Imprisoned in the Stutthof Concentration Camp. 

Her whole family perished. All alone.

Never married. Wrapped in her grief 

like a cashmere shawl.

On her vacation in Persian Gulf, she saw 

wobbly camels race – and finally laughed. 

A monument to Polish civilians shot by Germans during Warsaw Uprising

 ≡ THIRTY SIX ≡

The number is thirty-six. Not thirty and 

Not thirty-seven. Thirty-six. That’s how many 

lives they saved, sheltering them in secret, finding

more food, more clothing for the ghetto escapees. 

Doctor Alicja and Mr. Marian Burakowski at your service. 

Unsung heroes, nearly forgotten, except for 

that tree planted in Yad Vashem’ garden in 1983. 

Righteous among the Nations. No. 2480 on the list 

of the bravest people the world has ever known.

Think of the sheer audacity of what they did. 

The number is thirty-six. Not thirty and not thirty-seven. 

How many Jews would you have saved, if your own life, 

and that of all your children, your whole family, were at stake? 

Germans declared a mandatory death sentence, 

for this crime, if caught. 

Do not forget their names, then, Alicja and Marian

Dr. and Mr. Burakowski at your service.

The number is thirty-six.

 

 

≡ THE GREATEST SONG ≡

       ~ for Hanka Ordonówna, a humanitarian star (1902-1950)

Miłość Ci wszystko wybaczy… Love will forgive you everything. . .

The refrain of Poland’s most famous song

echoes through her memory, as she listens 

to the stories of war orphans – covered in

wounds and lice, starved to skeletons, yet

finding time to play. They asked her to sing. 

Ordonka, she used to be in another life, 

on a different timeline, another planet, perhaps – 

its very existence impossible to believe in, here 

on the train with orphans, on the way to a refugee

camp in India – in a coarse military uniform instead 

of silks, pearl strings, shawls, and ostrich feathers.

Champagne for the greatest star! Balls and revues

for the beloved singer of perfect Love! Such charm! 

She found refuge in Beirut, her final stop, Paris 

of the Levant. There was no Poland to return to, after 

Stalin’s tanks rolled in to stay for 45 years. She did not 

make it. She did not feel like wearing silks, feathers, 

pearls – after the orphans that survived their odyssey 

went somewhere else to become someone else – not 

her lost Polish children, smiling with delight as she sang.

Miłość ci wszystko wybaczy… bo miłość, moj miły, to ja!

Love will forgive you everything. . . for Love, my dear, I’m Love!

 

NOTE: Read a summary of her story by Irene Tomaszewski, "The Cabaret Star and the Orphans: From Warsaw to India" Cosmopolitan Review, vol. 5 no.2 (June 2013). http://cosmopolitanreview.com/hanka-ordonowna/

 

≡ A PILOT IN PAKISTAN ≡

~ for pilot Zofia Turowicz (d.1980)

She learned to fly to have wings —

to look down at the rolling waves of mountains, 

the geometry of fields outlined by rivers, 

dotted by lakes. She longed to see where clouds

were born, and where they were going.

Today, she teaches soldiers of a foreign army

how to fly and kill, kill and fly away, unharmed.

They call it the dogfight, as in, dog 

eats dog, the bigger dog,

the faster dog, the dog 

with sharper teeth. 

The dogs of war.

Six years was enough. 

Enough of this war.

She lost her home, her house, her childhood.

She has no future. Alone, wearing blond curls 

and the tight, belted uniform of a pilot

she’s teaching soldiers in a Muslim country 

how to fly to war. 

NOTE: Pilot Zofia Turowicz was the wife of Władysław Józef Marian Turowicz (1908-1980), commander of about 30 Polish pilots that trained the newly formed Pakistani Air Force since 1948. He remained a PAF officer, and became the founder of Pakistani space program. https://www.compasstravelguide.net/curiosities/the-polish-pakistani-air-force/ 

≡ TABLE OF CONTENTS ≡

≡ PART I ≡ DESTINATIONS ≡ 1≡

1. Once Upon a Time in Baranowicze ≡ 2

2. What to Carry ≡ 4

3. How to Walk ≡ 5

4. Starlight ≡ 6

5. Charlie, Who Did Not Cross ≡ 7

6. Five Countries in Venice ≡ 9

7. Kazakhstan, 1936 ≡ 11

8. Eyes on the Road ≡ 12

9. The Baton ≡13

10. Diamonds ≡ 14

11. Of Trains and Tea ≡ 15

≡ PART II ≡ NOWHERE ≡ 17 ≡

12. The Summer of Love ≡ 18

13. Bees and the Breeze ≡ 19

14. Afterimage ≡ 20

15. The Odds ≡ 21

16. Colors of Faith ≡ 22

17. Incense ≡ 24

18. Wołyń ≡ 25

19. Kołyma ≡ 27

20. Amu Darya ≡ 28

21. Reflection ≡ 30

22. Shambhala ≡ 31

23. Birdwatching in a Saltwater Marsh ≡ 33

≡ PART III ≡ HUNGER YEARS ≡ 35 ≡

24. Slicing the Bread ≡ 36

25. The Trap Door ≡ 37

26. Peeling the Potatoes ≡ 39

27. The Spoon ≡ 41

28. Kasha ≡ 42

29. The Hole in the Wall ≡ 43

30. Hair ≡ 44

31. The Polish Easter ≡ 45

32. Whitening ≡ 46

≡ PART IV ≡ RESILIENCE ≡ 47 ≡

33. Pani Basia ≡ 48

34. Family Stories ≡ 49

35. Persistence ≡ 50

36. Unvanquished ≡ 52

37. Thirty Six ≡ 54

38. The Greatest Song ≡ 55

39. A Pilot in Pakistan ≡ 56

40. Under African Sky ≡ 57

≡ PART V ≡ THERE AND BACK ≡ 59 ≡

41. A Song for a Key ≡ 60

42. Ciocia Tonia ≡ 61

43. Asters ≡ 63

44. No Chicken ≡ 65

45. Hiding ≡ 67

46. Naming Names ≡ 68

47. The Coat ≡ 69

48. Short Legs ≡ 70

49. Standing Guard ≡ 71

50. The Way to School ≡ 72

51. Reverberations ≡ 73

52. Losing Irena ≡ 74

≡ PART VI ≡ WHAT REMAINS ≡ 75 ≡

53. The Lady with an Ermine ≡ 76

54. Language ≡ 78

55. The Prophet ≡ 80

56. Counting Traumas ≡ 82

57. Tatarak ≡ 83

58. An Exile's Blues ≡ 84

59. The Antidote ≡ 85

60. Soap Bubbles ≡ 87

61. The 23rd of July ≡ 88

62. Diamon Rain ≡ 90

63. Oh, Silver River ≡ 92

Family Album ≡ 93

About the Author ≡ 106

About this Book ≡ 107

"Today in the Forest" A New Book by Cindy Rinne and Toti O'Brien, February 2021

ISBN  978-1-945938-43-6 Color Paperback, 46 pages, $20

ISBN 978-1-945938-45-0 E-Book in PDF,  only on lulu.com, $10 

ISBN 978-1-945938-44-3  EBook in e-Pub, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, etc. $10

Moonrise Press announces the publication of "Today in the Forest," a mysterious and inspired poetry and art book that will stir your imagination. This gem of a book has been created by Cindy Rinne, poet and fiber artist, and Toti O'Brien, artist, musician, and poet, with Cindy's poems and Toti's images in a delightful counterpoint of words and visions. 

The first reading is scheduled by Village Poets of Sunland-Tujunga on Zoom on Sunday, March 21, 2021 at 4:30 pm. To request a link email Maja Trochimczyk at maja@moonrisepress.com or Dorothy Skiles at dmhskiles@gmail.com. In addition to discussing her imagery and techniques, Toti ead some of her poems - since the book includes only poetry by Cindy Rinne. Two open mic sessions were available, before and after the feature presentation.  

Video recording of the reading on YouTube:https://youtu.be/7sZM8GSJJgU

ABOUT THIS BOOK

"I was mesmerized reading Today in the Forest. O’Brien and Rinne have created a luminous, mythical world inhabited by a Moon Goddess, wolf-people, and various imaginative delights. It is a world destroyed or horribly threatened, yet I felt protection, care, and survival here. Today in the Forest is a poetic journey illuminated with hope and memory."

   ~ Stacy Russo, author of Love Activism and We Were Going to Change the World

"As if in the forest all the problems of our world are being solved under the bark of trees, in an unseen parallel world, a precise and healing mythology is acted out by half human half visionary figures. Here, illustrated with powerful hand by someone who has been there, and witnessed, Toti O'Brien as master-artist, embodies the magical words of storyteller Cindy Rinne whose characters, her intimates, have allowed her to share their secrets at work.

       Cindy has recorded and given us a magic scroll. Toti has drawn and given us the map. "She sees the sand bottom and tries to hold the tree's shadow. A murmur gurgles as golden rocks beckon her to climb." ~ Cindy Rinne

       We need to be here for hope." 

    ~ Kath Abela Wilson, leader of Poets on Site, author of  Figures of Humor and Strange Beauty (Glass Lyre Press, 2019)

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Cindy Rinne creates fiber art and writes in San Bernardino, CA. Cindy is the author of several books: silence between drumbeats (Four Feathers Press), Letters Under Rock with Bory Thach, (Elyssar Press), and others. Her poetry appeared or is forthcoming: Anti-Heroin Chic, Verse-Virtual, LitGleam, and others, plus several anthologies. www.fiberverse.com

 Toti O’Brien’s mixed media have been exhibited in group and solo shows, in Europe and the US, since 1995. She has illustrated several children books and two memoirs. Her artwork is on the cover of several books and it was most recently featured in pethricor, Two Hawks, Arkana and Argo. More about her work can be found at http://totihan.net/index.html

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Poems by Cindy Rinne 

Images by Toti O’Brien

Part I – Moon Goddess

Anahita Speaks Today in the Forest 3

Today in the Forest                 4 

Presence / Absence                 5 

Anahita’s Horses                 6

Some Days Coral Mustang         7

Deep-Downness                         8

Deep-Downness                         9

Rain Stick                         10

Hollowed Plant                 11

At All Cost                         12

At All Cost                         13

Return from the Grave                 14

Beneath Quarter Moon         15

Crystalwind Vanishes and Finds a Map         16

After all these Years of Waiting         17

Food from Starshine                 18 

Decay                         19

Thinks of Her Family                 20

Part II – Crystalwind’s Family

The Elements                 23

Merger of Heartbeat and Bark                 24

Memories                         25

One Loop Left                26 

The Wolf Flower                         27 

Exposed Roots                         28 

Exposed Roots                 29 

Rings of Time                 30 

Azurite Knows Two Bodies         31

No Shortness of Breath                 32

Gentleness                         33

Sister Runs                         34

Murmurs                         35

Crystalwind Imagines Anahita                 36

Acknowledgements                 38

About the Authors                 39

Book Review by Michael Paul Hogan, in London Grip Poetry Review online, November 2022:

https://londongrip.co.uk/2022/11/london-grip-poetry-review-cindy-rinne

Is it possible to create a myth? Or should they evolve out of some remote and unrecorded past, only gaining the concrete legitimacy of words when they have been refined and expanded over centuries of oral transmutation? Does poetry represent a myth’s end in the sense that the myth is now completed? That it can no longer be told in many versions, but now must be read as a single unified work?

The genius of Cindy Rinne (greatly aided by the genius of her illustrator, Toti O’Brien) is that she has managed to sidestep these questions by not exactly creating a myth, but presenting us with the fragments of a myth, one that might have been developed orally then been crystallised by poets, but now resembles the shards of pottery and pieces of fresco from which an archaeologist might recreate the kingdom of Sparta or the city of Troy. The myth, she seems to say, has been forgotten, buried under a heap of modern imagery; from these fragments I now present to you, you must recreate the myth for yourself. [...]

Ultimately, Today in the Forest defies any kind of conventional revue. The text is like trying to negotiate an entirely blacked-out village by the occasional flash of lightning; the illustrations need to be seen to be appreciated; the effect of the combination of the two must, therefore, be taken on trust. I can only conclude by saying that Cindy Rinne and Toti O’Brien have between them created a small masterpiece. It deserves all the success I hope it achieves.

Review of Toti O'Brien's "An Alphabet of Birds" by Mari Werner

 

Book Review by Mari Werner: An Alphabet of Birds by Toti O’Brien

Published in Poetry Letter No. 1, 2021, California State Poetry Society

Los Angeles: Moonrise Press, October 2020; 

http://www.moonrisepress.com/alphabet-of-birds.html

ISBN 978-1-945938-41-2, paperback, 184 pp, $15.00; 

ISBN 978-1-945938-42-9, ebook in ePub, $10.00

Preview by Quill and Parchment - New Books Announcement

http://quillandparchment.com/archives/Feb2021/vol236.html

In mindfulness meditation, the object of the practice is to be fully present in the moment. In Toti O’Brien’s prose collection, An Alphabet of Birds, the stories are told by a narrator who is keenly in the moment and acutely perceptive—so much so that the reading experience can become like a meditation. This is a prose collection but it’s difficult to nail down whether they’re stories, essays, or prose poems, fiction or creative non-fiction. And it isn’t necessary. These are literary pieces told through a rare and distinctive voice that slips effortlessly from the real to the surreal, and from the outer to the inner world. The details that bring a story to life and bring a universe into the mind of the reader are poured so naturally into the pages that it’s easy to forget one is reading.

The title of the piece, Five Senses, may be something of a representation of the character of the book— except that it turns out not to be limited to five. This particular piece is an intriguing exploration of the perceptions, influences, and decisions that shape or foreshadow the vectors of life from an early age. It begins with the inner story of a small child quenching her thirst for sense, experience, and understanding under the wise tutelage of her grandparents, or out on her own roaming orchards and wild ravines.

Her explorations and the expansion of her world come to life in full detail, but at the same time other senses are invoked in the reader, such as developing a love for the grandfather or feeling the apprehensive chill of another side of the child’s life. “Back in town with her parents, in winter, she’ll start school. When spring and the swallows will come she will return South, Grandma promises. Right. She begins waiting for spring without further ado.” 

The words are beautifully written without calling attention to themselves. They conjure another realm without particular regard for the confines of time and the standard definitions of how things work in the ‘real’ world. Most of the pieces are not linear, they ride conceptually in what flows like gliding down a river on a raft. 

O’Brien paints both the outer and the inner landscape in vivid detail. In Sunset Walk, the reason for the deep grieving taking place in the inner world of the walker is never revealed, but the grief is interwoven as the outer world plays in full color texture and motion. “And I long for every house, for every life I haven’t lived, feeling both its sweet promise and its irreparable loss.”

Parts of the book are humorous in a wry matter-of-fact way devoid of any self-conscious effort to make you laugh. For example, the squirrel contemplating an orange in Creation: “Judging by the gravity of its frown it must be debating large matters, either the original sin (the type of fruit makes no difference, all round juicy things work, temptation-wise) or else global issues such as climate change, inequality, resource shortage…” Or in Darwin where the reader enters a place in which everyone knows a bird doesn’t fly. “It can’t for a crucial reason, a deal-breaker. Such a feat would take lots of oxygen, and birds talk too much. In fact, they never stop. That is why fish fly, dear, fish only. Because they shut up.” One may be left wondering if other assumptions about the structures of reality have evaporated too. 

TOTI O'BRIEN

The pieces, even the humorous ones, are philosophical, but never by way of bringing messages tied up in packages. The narrating voice is deeply inquisitive and observant, not just of physical perceptions and the inner emotional realm, but also of the world at large, the universe, the perennial questions related to being a human on Earth. It raises questions, opens doors, explores ideas—such as this from the first-person piece, September, as the narrator listens to Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy: “Quite a simple message. Sursum corda, be brave, never give up. Isn’t it what Beethoven always intends? He did. The man is long dead. But his notes are resounding against my bones, striking my membranes. They vibrate through my throat, echo within my ears. The composer is dead, but he’s not…I know it is common sense. Still, how common is that? What outlives the body, where, why?”

Though this work visits many different emotions and situations, overall, it provides a collection of clear windows into colors, tastes, textures and music of life that are there to be experienced—if you’re paying attention. This is gifted writing that deserves a broad readership and critical attention.

~ Mari Werner, Claremont, CA

Published in California State Poetry Society's "Poetry Letter," no. 1, 2021, in PDF format and on CSPS Blog: https://www.californiastatepoetrysociety.com/2021/02/poetry-letter-no-1-2021-reviews-of.html

Margaret Saine - Poet of "Lit Angels" and Gardens of the Earth"

 Margaret and Maja at Maja's Photography Exhibit, 2018.

Margaret Saine, author of two books published by Moonrise Press, "Lit Angels" and "Gardens of the Earth: According to Nature", has recently retired from her decades of volunteer work for the California State Poetry Society.  The "Poetry Letter" No. 1, 2021, included the following in appreciation of her selfless service: 

"After 18 years of service to CSPS as California Quarterly Editor, Secretary/Historian and Poetry Letter Editor, Margaret Saine decided to step down and focus on her own poetry. As her replacement as Poetry Letter Editor and CSPS President, I am especially grateful that she introduced me to the CSPS. Margaret’s contributions to our Society are immeasurable. To me, she is the embodiment of extensive, expert knowledge of all the arts (poetry, literature, painting, sculpture, and architecture), as well as languages, and history. I admire her deep, unyielding love of poetry in as many languages as can be brought together for the cause of peace and coexistence without violence, without wars – to seek beauty, inspiration and appreciation of the world as is, in all its darkness and light, in all its riches. 

Cover of the California Quarterly 46 no. 1 edited by Margaret Saine. 

 

She writes and publishes poetry in English, her native German, as well as French, Italian and Spanish. She translates an international group of poets, giving them a space to share their insights. As a photographer, she depicts the world in motion - blurry, misty, ambiguous, yet enticing with mysterious patterns. Her erudite, thoughtful and passionate poems reflect her keen attention to detail, ability to see the large picture, find wisdom in nature and art. I am glad my Moonrise Press published Margaret’s two poetry books, Lit Angels (2016) and Garden of the Earth: According to Nature (2018). I am profoundly grateful for all the gifts Margaret brought to my life – richness of vivid language, sharp focus on quality of words expressing a thought or impression clearly and succinctly.  

John F. Harrell, CSPS Past President and Editor, current Treasurer and Webmaster, writes: “My years with Margaret spanned three decades or so, from Board meetings and poetry readings at Jerry Palley's place in Irvine all the way through to our last drive up to your place in Sunland for a Board meeting. I never have to guess at what she thinks. I like the fact that she can be brutally honest, but that the quality of the art and the writing is always her first concern. During the eight years I was responsible for publishing the CQ, she came up to Yorba Linda from her home in Orange as often as she could--she was frequently not just out of town, but out of the country—to help assemble the quarterly packages for mailing. She volunteered to help because she thought doing the work alone would be ‘depressing" for me. I enjoyed sharing the time with her, as our conversations often ranged over a wide landscape of interests. I didn't discuss rocket science with her, but almost everything else—and even when we had to agree to disagree. She is a longtime and lovely friend, truly a Grand Dame of poesy and art.”

Cover of the California Quarterly 44 no. 4 edited by Margaret Saine (2018)

Alice Pero, CSPS Monthly Contest Chair writes: “I know Margaret as a wonderful poet, facile in several languages. Her translations have always come as fresh breezes through a rather stagnant world and we want to stop to listen to her poems. I feel as though she has taken the time to savor the love of words, while others rush through, unhearing and unseeing. Sorry to see her talents go from CSPS, just as I am getting more involved with the society." 

Gardens of the Earth by Margaret Saine

http://moonrisepress.com/gardens-of-the-earth---saine.html

Ute Margaret Saine was born in Germany. After a Yale Ph.D. in French and Spanish, she taught languages, literature, and culture in California and Arizona, while writing and translating poetry in five languages. Since 1991, she has been a board member of the CSPS and a CQ editor since 1994. She also edited the CSPS Poetry Letter and served formerly as the CSPS Annual Contest Chair. Her poems have appeared in many journals here and abroad. She has published four books of poetry in English – Bodyscapes, Words of Art, Lit Angels and Gardens of the Earth – as well as six haiku chapbooks in five languages. Three books of poems and a Postwar childhood memoir appeared in Germany – Das Flüchtige bleibt (The Ephemeral Remains), Das Weite suchen (A Yen to Travel), Atem der Stille (The Breath of Silence), and Das ungeschickte Kind (Awkward Child). Searching for Bridges is a bilingual English-Arabic collection edited by poet and critic Nizar Sartawi. In 2020, Saine was nominated for the Pushcart Prize by Editors of the California Quarterly.

Lit Angels by Margaret Saine

http://moonrisepress.com/lit-angels---saine.html