Moonrise Press Publishes "Crystal Fire. Poems of Joy & Wisdom" Edited by Maja Trochimczyk, September 2022

 

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