Crystal Fire. Poems of Joy & Wisdom
ISBN 978-1-945938-57-3
(color hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-945938-58-0 (color paperback)
ISBN 978-1-945938-59-7
(eBook)
Edited by Maja Trochimczyk, and illustrated with paintings by Ambika Talwar, the “Crystal Fire” anthology gathers poems of joy and wisdom by 12 poets, 8 women and 4 men: Elżbieta Czajkowska, Joe DeCenzo, Mary Elliott, Jeff Graham, Marlene Hitt, Frederick Livingston, Alice Pero, Allegra Silberstein, Jane Stuart, Ambika Talwar, Bory Thach, and Maja Trochimczyk. The poets span all ages and diverse life experiences. They include émigrés from Poland, Cambodia, and India, and those born in the U.S. College professors join community poets. Native speakers appear alongside those for whom English is the second, or even the third language. The ”joy and wisdom” they write about are also different, as each poet follows their own path and gathers unique reflections to share with their readers.
Preface
When shadows fell, it was time to shine. The worse and more absurd the news and events are, the more inclined I have been to write “positive” poetry—find shelter in my garden, watch ocean waves on an empty beach, play with kites in the hills. All alone. This period of seclusion has helped me find focus and inspiration for a book of my own, Bright Skies, dedicated to my children and grandchildren. I thought of a legacy to leave for them: the legacy of love and joy, the legacy of experience, the legacy of wisdom.
The same focus resulted in the idea of gathering poems of joy and wisdom from other poets for an anthology. Alas, my call for submissions did not result in an avalanche of poems. Not at all. Instead, I heard from some fine poet-friends that they found it very hard to write about light and love, and that their own poems were very dark, reflecting traumas and sorrows of their lives. But I also received sets of great poems that inspired me to change the book’s design. Instead of an anthology filled with single poems by many authors, I present a collection written by 12 poets, 8 women and 4 men, spanning all ages and diverse life experiences. Emigrés from Poland, Cambodia, and India, and those born in the U.S. College professors join community poets. Native speakers appear alongside those for whom English is second, or even third language. The ”joy and wisdom” they write about are also different, as each poet follows their own path and gathers unique reflections to share with their readers.
The title of this anthology comes from my poem “The Year of Crystal Fire” written at the end of a very long and convoluted love story that has a lot to do with the ancient Chinese legends of nine-tailed foxes. I placed this poem in the Babie Lato section of the Bright Skies book. This section contains poems about romantic love and wisdom that comes from loving someone, getting to know the beloved, and learning about love itself. I must admit that the pathway ascending from personal, romantic and erotic love to the universal love, the glue that holds the Universe together, has been my obsession since my first poetry book, Miriam’s Iris, or Angels in the Garden, published in 2008. But I’m a slow learner, so my last words on the subject were written only in 2022! In any case, Babie Lato (lit. Woman’s Summer) is the Polish term for that magical period between summer and fall, when the light is golden, the air warm, and orchards full of fruit. This is the time of harvest, of ripening, of maturing. In English it is called Indian Summer, but this name does not fit my idea of gathering the fruit of insight from romance, so I kept the Polish term.
Initially, the title of this anthology was to be The Year of Crystal Fire, just like the poem, but why limit ourselves to just one year? The phrase of “Crystal Fire” may be seen as the symbol of all humanity, with each person born from the union of man and woman, the male and female DNA strands interlocking in ever new patterns to create human beings. In this phrase, "Crystal" stands for the feminine and “Fire” for the masculine. “Crystal” is peaceful, somewhat static, but well-constructed, stable, and growing slowly into perfection. It is the cosmos of order and being. Remember, only women give birth (though some want to construct artificial wombs and detach humanity from its roots). In contrast, "Fire" is dynamic, sometimes intensely dramatic, always changing, always transforming, constantly in the state of flux. It is the energy of change and growth. It is also destructive, demolishing solid structures of the past to make room for the new. “Fire” means destruction and becoming. It is pure chaos.
The Universe arises from the dance of these twin forces, like yin and yang, but neither is pure darkness, negative and “evil” and neither is pure light, positive, and “good.” Instead, they are the ageless vortex of cosmic unity and chaos, of creation and destruction. There is no value assigned to this polarity, for such labels are limiting and deceptive. Both aspects are essential, each cannot exist without its twin. Both are good AND evil, both are positive AND negative. ”Good and positive” when coupled with the other. “Evil and negative” when alone. These are the polar opposites of stagnation and decline—or constant movement and the total destruction of all life. The feminine elements of "earth" and "water" endlessly dance with the masculine elements of “air” and “fire.” Do you agree with me?
I find this completely new cosmology that came out of one love wisdom poem to be quite fascinating. Take it or leave it. It is mine to share.
I am grateful to all poets that found their way to this anthology, via submission or invitation to contribute: Elżbieta Czajkowska, Joe DeCenzo, Mary Elliott, Jeff Graham, Marlene Hitt, Frederick Livingston, Alice Pero, Allegra Silberstein, Jane Stuart, Ambika Talwar, and Bory Thach. I am grateful for the poets’ willingness to work with me and revise or replace their poems as requested. Alice, Ambika and Bory serve with me on the California State Poetry Society’s Board. Joe and Marlene are friends from Village Poets of Sunland-Tujunga; we have been organizing readings together for over a decade. Others are contributors to the CSPS’s California Quarterly whose poems I liked so much I decided to invite them to join us. Thus, these two organizations should also be acknowledged for opening my poetic horizons and making this anthology possible.
I am particularly grateful to Ambika Talwar whose magnificent artwork graces the cover of this volume and all title pages for individual poets. She is a great painter and a great poet, also the most prolific. Her verse provides a fitting conclusion to this collection designed to illumine its readers with Crystal Fire.
Enjoy!
Maja Trochimczyk
Los Angeles, 28 August 2022
ABOUT THIS BOOK - FROM A REVIEW BY MICHAEL ESCOUBAS
"Before launching into the poems themselves, I was blessed by Maja Trochimczyk’s two and one-half page preface. This personally revealing summary of her motivations for giving birth to Crystal Fire is indispensable reading. In it she explains her use of "Crystal," and "Fire," in the title. Don't pass over this enlightened writing. Each contributor offers a unique take on the subject matter, thus adding a touch of virtuosity to the whole. In an age of vitriolic talk, of political and moral uncertainty, amid the dark clouds of Covid-19, Crystal Fire draws back the curtain on Love, Joy and yes, Wisdom. As art and poetry work together, I’ve come to an ever-deeper appreciation of Wallace Stevens’ very practical saying, “Poetry [and painting] is a response to the daily necessity of getting the world right.” I can’t help thinking that Maja Trochimczyk, Ambika Talwar, and the talented contributors to Crystal Fire, would agree."
Michael Escoubas, Quill and Parchment, April 2023
http://quillandparchment.com/archives/April2023/book3.html
Table of Contents
Table of Contents ≈ v
Preface ≈ x
Prior Publication Credits ≈ xiii
Illustrations by Ambika Talwar ≈ xiv
Elzbieta
Czajkowska ≈ 3
1. Of Sky, and Ocean, and Earth ≈ 4
2. What Heart May Be Dreaming ≈ 5
3. The Sublime Senses ≈ 6
4. Given ≈ 7
5. I Burn
≈ 8
6. Fruits of Infinity ≈ 9
7. Close Enough ≈ 11
8. Circles ≈ 12
9. All You ≈ 13
10. The Calling ≈ 14
All You
Breathe in, breathe out. Let it go, let it flow.
Let it seep out like water through fingers,
Like sand—drop after drop, grain after grain.
Empty out all the filth, discard the trash—
There is no use for useless and no worth to worthless,
No sense in senseless, no purpose to purposeless.
There is a song to be found in silence,
Peace—in motionlessness wrapped in chaos.
Seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting
The moment—a breathless wealth of endlessness
Hidden in a second, an age of blissful now.
Freedom is found in a mind unburdened from want,
From expectations, desires and needs, and thus from fear—
Of losing, of needing more, and not receiving enough.
You are the grain of sand in a desert dune—
A drop of water in infinite ocean—
You are the breath, the design, the universe.
Not everything is about you—
Everything is about you—
“I create myself”
Bory Thach ≈ 15
1. Soul-spirit ≈ 16
2. Memory ≈ 17
3. Yesterday I was a Nightingale ≈ 18
4. Fireflies in Moonlight ≈ 19
5. I Fell in Love with the Quietly
Flowing River ≈ 20
6. My Desert ≈ 21
7. Mirage ≈ 22
8. Migration ≈ 23
9. Awaken ≈ 24
Fireflies
in Moonlight
A spring moon, sad and beautiful
In an unseen world. Endless
Whispers of late-night winds and rain.
An oil lamp. Hands in supplication
As they burn a prayer offering,
Washing away all earthly sentiments.
Vibrational auras are shaped by
thoughts.
Purity and stillness remain. Dreams
Fly, seductive, like star magnolias
On midnight breeze.
Petals fall outside the window,
Red leaves float on water in a garden
With lilies. They open as bright as
hollowed moons, big enough to fill
Two outstretched palms.
The river of stars ebbs and flows,
Then sails away — as melting frost
Feeds the wilderness. All things
Come into being. The balance
Of matter and energy.
The imperceptible is everywhere
Like ink on a page that brings
Mountains and streams to life.
Gaze through the veil of time
Beyond mists and fog.
Before waking up,
Move between realms
Of the physical and spiritual.
It is time to count fireflies
In moonlight.
Joe DeCenzo ≈ 25
1. Where the Road Bends ≈ 26
2. It’s Never Too Early ≈ 27
3. Lasagna ≈ 28
4. For What October Brings ≈ 29
5. Between the Lines ≈ 30
6. Would You Ever Know? ≈ 31
7. Love’s Cliché ≈ 32
8. With Gratitude ≈ 33
9. In Joy and Jacaranda ≈ 34
In Joy and Jacaranda
Tell me stories of your restful hibernation,
How you live through the vague and varied
impressions
Of
winter’s monochrome.
Tell me how it feels to dream in lavish lilac
periwinkle,
To reimagine the bleached and bland conformities
As you
prepare the amethyst show.
What gives voice to inspiration
When that first flower takes to stem?
Your trumpet blossoms serenade the skies,
A fanfare in tones of violet-blue
Transforming Drab Avenue into Lavender Lane,
Painting fairytales against a hazy backdrop
That emit free passes to foreign lands.
But, oh, so brief this purple pageant
Before it turns to floral rain.
To blink would be to miss its brilliance
Losing the captivity of its color.
A reviving yet ephemeral moment
Gazing at the lilac plume
To watch it then become sky again
When the wilting blue trumpet petals
Form pools of joy to bathe one’s feet
Or a parade of pastel fireworks
Bursting beneath the tires of bicycles that ride
past.
You dazzle then you disappear as spring is ending
soon.
The price of finding summer is the loss of
passion’s bloom.
Marlene Hitt ≈ 35
1. Long Time ≈ 36
2. Dive Deep ≈ 37
3. Journey ≈ 38
4. Field Trip with the Sixth Grade ≈ 39
5. Words from the Garden ≈ 40
6. A Room Full of Boxes ≈ 41
7. What Am I Thankful For? ≈ 42
8. So Close ≈ 43
9. In the Deepest Parts… ≈ 44
10. Reflecting ≈ 44
11. Echo ≈ 45
12. Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day ≈ 46
Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day
You lean to a silver pond
in a brittle pose staring
while circles try to reach you
your palette is dry
mudded to burnt umber
How unlike you
your stiff drooping
how unlikely on this silver day
for wind blew last night
cleared the air, promised
a day fair and sunny
I remember the amber
and the leaves deep gold
when that day itself leapt
far out into all colors
except red which I banished
That day we danced
into intersecting rainbows
each moment luminous and pure
We twirled into the day
the one colored with laughter
that brisk and leaping
zestful soaring day
just the two of us
Jane Stuart ≈ 47
1. Snow Flower ≈ 48
2. Across a Lost Horizon ≈ 49
3. A Nature Medley ≈ 50
4. Alexandria – Athens ≈ 51
5. Going Nowhere ≈ 52
6. A Coral Kiss ≈ 53
7. Seeing You in Silhouette ≈ 54
8. Kentucky Moonlight ≈ 55
9. The Fox Flies through the Wind ≈ 56
10. Puppet Show No. 13 ≈ 58
11. A Kyrielle ≈ 59
12. The Snow Globe ≈ 60
Going Nowhere
On the beach
your sandals
a red-striped towel
evening's wind
the lotus moon
Invisible moments
fill our hours—
silver stars float
through cold skies—
summer's solstice
is so late this year
And a lone heron
flies behind the hawk
and crying owl.
Seaweed fills our boats,
a blue wind blows us
back and forth
Our eyes are full of stars.
Our hearts fill with
the motion of the universe,
a slow rocking
under the full moon.
Listen!
Now light is breaking,
water washing over rock,
leaves flying in crazy
rhythm
while trees wave
their branches.
This new day brings us
everything we need.
Alice Pero ≈ 61
1. Now ≈ 62
2. Southern CA Yard Chaos ≈ 63
3. Tree Nobility ≈ 64
4. Begin Again, Summer Solstice ≈ 65
5. What is Important? ≈ 66
6. Be It ≈ 67
7. Desert ≈ 68
8. Wind Song ≈ 69
9. If I Rise ≈ 70
10. Break the Lock ≈ 71
If I Rise
If I rise up past the sun
I will keep a point
down in the green
I will not cast all my anchors up
I will still touch
the tiny trees that sway
the weeping branches
If I hide behind the moon
dark shadows paint
on planet’s hills, beam
a long ray on moon’s quiet
I will still leave
my thought, brush
the wings of birds
in Earth flight
Form greeting
If I try to fathom space
mark deep traces
in the unknown
I will not rise up forever
past the fallen friends remaining
loved ones grieving
Those caught in Earth’s
endless turning
I will catch the silver
of the dep and silent sky
I will bring a treasure home
to touch the earth, each eye.
Frederick Livingston
≈ 73
1. Do Stones Have Souls? ≈ 74
2. Fig ≈ 76
3. All Poems are Moon Poems ≈ 77
4. Rings ≈ 78
5. Lunar New Year ≈ 80
6. Rainbow Dreaming ≈ 81
7. Light ≈ 82
8. Honey ≈ 83
9. Present ≈ 85
10. Gnat Creek ≈ 86
11. Pear Blossom ≈ 87
Rainbows Dreaming
Snoqualmie Pass, Washington
Now
I know
the
blankness of snow
is
only rainbows dreaming,
teaming
with streaks of red paintbrush
little
lanterns of columbine
tiger
lilies prowl the scree slope
yellow
asters multiply the sun
the
hungry green of spring leaves
purple-blue
lupine flooding the valley.
Who
would ever know
these
slopes were covered in snow
one
mere moon ago?
What
else have I not seen
and
called “empty” in my ignorance?
What
dreams within me may erupt
from
thawing soil,
simply
waiting for ripe moments
to
answer the generosity of sunlight?
Allegra Silberstein ≈ 89
1. The Music of My Love ≈ 90
2. Wherever You Are ≈ 91
3. I Would Lean Out into Meaning ≈ 92
4. Full Moon Magic ≈ 93
5. April Apples and Other Notes ≈ 94
6. The Wind ≈ 95
7. Passage of Blossoms ≈ 96
8. This Day ≈ 97
9. For the Earth ≈ 98
April Apples and Other Notes
They blossom now
on their way to becoming
in August harvest.
Mourning dove beneath the tree
chases a scrub-jay away
territorial rights upheld.
Sometimes a cliche
touches the wonder heard
in birdsong of the heart.
Word flight remembered
the old ever new—I love you
warming the day.
You are the keeper
of a country that does not
yet know it exists.
Autumn apples
hold stars within…
the ripening of heart.
Mary Elliott ≈ 99
1. Run ≈ 100
2. On Becoming ≈ 102
3. The Crone ≈ 103
4. Crowns of Flowers ≈ 105
5. Stepping Stones ≈ 106
6. Seasons ≈ 107
7. Weave ≈ 108
8. Blood of Stars ≈ 110
Blood of Stars
Will
I make it back?
I’m
26,000 light years,
Away
from everything,
In
California.
Sitting
on the edge,
of
Orion Cygnus' arm,
Gazing
up into the October skies,
At
some unearthly hour,
It’s
almost Thursday morning.
Sat
wondering if that star,
Will
come back my way,
Taking
effervescence,
Somewhere
deep into the heavens,
Made
to roam,
Luminating
from the inside.
Like
me,
Covered
in layers,
of
borrowed flesh and bone,
Poured
with blood,
From
the souls of stars,
Into
my own.
Jeff Graham ≈ 111
1. Theology of Blue ≈ 112
2. No, It Is Blossoming That Is in Bloom ≈ 112
3. At Times, I Find Myself in Time ≈ 113
4. Roadscape ≈ 116
5. Roadside Roads ≈ 118
6. Polarities: Grove of I ≈ 119
7. Twilight’s Flight by Day, by Night ≈ 120
8. Nocturne 20 ≈ 122
9. Nocturne 44 ≈ 122
10. The Bantam Hours 14 ≈ 123
11. The Bantam Hours 22 ≈ 123
12.
The Bantam Hours 53 ≈ 124
13. The Bantam Hours 74 ≈ 124
14. The Bantam Hours 79 ≈ 125
15. The Bantam Hours 80 ≈ 126
The Bantam Hours 53
Or say, green of field of wheat need not
wind to move it, but my eyes to see it move,
thus my mind to reason what my eyes see,
thus my body to maintain my mind
like/while grain of wheat sustains the body.
Or say, the sun sinks due to its heaviness,
that moonrise is steered by the tides,
that wheat sways because it is wheat.
Or say, the purpose of life is purpose,
the meaning but the search for meaning
(along with the sense of purpose of such).
Or say, I may be.
The Bantam Hours 79
Not petals, yet the minuscule petals;
not leaves, yet the sparse leaves;
not stalks, yet even the uneven segmentations
of the stalks of geraniums
brought spring to my thoughts,
brought spring to fruition (to spring),
brought my thoughts to me
(of the actual)
of the eve of autumn
rolling down and off from the eaves
of treegreen and that of the roof
of the day’s everywhen
(thus now).
Maja Trochimczyk ≈ 127
1. The Year of Crystal Fire ≈ 128
2. A Black Velvet Butterfly ≈ 129
3. Repeat After Me ≈ 130
4. The Infinity Room ≈ 132
5. Pelicans ≈ 134
6. Liquid Opal ≈ 135
7. The School of Birds ≈ 136
8. Alchemy in the Hills ≈ 137
9. The Stillness of Trees ≈ 138
10. Imagine a Star… ≈ 139
11. Arbor Cosmica ≈ 140
12. Like Grapes on a Vine ≈ 142
13. A Starchild’s Lesson ≈ 143
14. Today Is for Us ≈ 144
The Year of
Crystal Fire
Soft patter of pink rose petals
falling onto the floor. The scent of
French Perfume
in the air. The heartbeat stops. The world ceases its rotations.
I see the light in your eyes shining
through the slit in your motorcycle
helmet,
as you pass me on the street. In a
millisecond
of recognition you take me in—whole,
serene in turquoise and aqua—then,
you look away
far into the past we shared so
shamelessly,
beyond measure—
the
year of passion
the
year of dogs that brought us together
the
year of longing
the
year of dolphins dancing on salty waves
the
year of absence
the
year of waiting in darkness
the year of tiger lilies
the year of nine-tailed foxes—
smooth with seduction
and delight
Yes, I liked that year the most—
as we grew into our demonic, daimonic
selves,
created new galaxies, parallel
universes
out of our other-worldly love.
Timelines shift.
The
cosmic windows
keep
opening and closing.
Soft
patter of pink rose petals
on
the flying carpet takes me into
the year of passion
the year of tiger lilies
the year of diamond kites
soaring above hilltops
the year of stardust
the year of crystal fire
Ambika Talwar ≈ 145
1. Wild Savant ≈ 146
2. Breath of Resonance ≈ 147
3. Torus for a Broken World ≈ 148
4. Joy in a Careless Breeze ≈ 150
5. Transmutation: A World In & Beyond
Time ≈ 151
6. When Gratitude Rises in my Skin ≈ 152
7. Wings of Fire ≈ 153
8. We Are All the Beloved ≈ 156
9. Shades of a Dinner Meeting ≈ 158
10. A Dream of Indomitable Courage ≈ 160
11. Rose Haiku ≈ 161
12. Freely Wilding Grace ≈ 162
13. Melting Mirrors ≈ 164
14. Love is Our Immanent Soul Force ≈ 165
Joy
in a Careless Breeze
Oh! Where are the
forests and lakes
I long for? Ripple of feathered
wings
and curls of water that sing.
Wishbone
afloat. Smudge of
dust on our faces
knees and hands that clasped
walls
of rock, mud, fossils, language of lichen.
Rain-song on my head We sing soaked
drenched with joy untrammeled as
wing
bone. Oh! Where the forests and lakes
I belong for? Fragrance of wet wood
cedar trickling with fresh breath
rising
of latent wilderness whose heart
beats in mine own. I must walk
far
from here to there where wisdom
beads
fall from treetops scattering auburn
leaves
on unaware
sleepers. Where are the forests
where we can sprawl random as a forgotten
daisy lost as a forest flower about to
burst–
bloom with
limitless joy in a careless breeze?
Prana, ruah, chi…
breath stirs in all directions
shimmering new
leaves
About the Poets ≈ 167
Illustrations by Ambika Talwar
“Heavens
Lake Diptych” ~ Right, Acrylic / 1994 ≈
Front Cover
“Heavens
Lake Diptych” ~ Left, Acrylic / 1994 ≈
Back Cover
“Little
Blue Moon”~ Acrylic / 1996 ≈
3
“Vortices
of Being ~ Acrylic / 2004 ≈ 13
“Meridians”
~ Acrylic /1996 ≈ 23
“Quiet Rainfall” ~ Acrylic / 1997 ≈ 33
“Serenity
at Dusk” ~ Acrylic / 1997 ≈
45
“Passion
of the Lotus” ~ Acrylic / 1998 ≈
59
“initiation”
~ Acrylic / 2003 ≈ 71
“Celebration”
~ Acrylic / 1997 ≈
87
“Dawn
Lights” ~ Acrylic / 1997 ≈ 97
“Raagas
for a Himalayan Sunrise” ~ Acrylic / 1997
≈ 109
“Blue
Arches” ~ Acrylic / 1998 ≈ 125
“Creative
Vision of the Heart” ~ Acrylic / 1997 ≈ 139
“Heavens
Lake Diptych” ~ Left, Acrylic / 1994 ≈ 166
