Moonrise Press: "Crystal Fire" Anthology Reading at Bolton Hall Museum on 24 March 2024 at 4:30pm

Moonrise Press is pleased to present a poetry reading from "Crystal Fire: Poems of Joy and Wisdom," a poetry anthology edited by Maja Trochimczyk in 2022, at the Village Poets Monthly Readings on 24 March 2024 at 4:30 pm. The reading will take place at the Bolton Hall Museum, at 10110 Commerce Ave, Tujunga, CA 91042. Free admission, refreshments provided. Suggested donation $5. The reading will also include 45 min for the open mic sections, so bring the best of your positive, joyous, and inspirational poems!.

There will be seven poets featured in the anthology who will read their work during the event:

1. Joe DeCenzo

2. Elzbieta Czajkowska

3. Bory Thach

4. Marlene Hitt

5. Alice Pero

6. Ambika Talwar

7. Maja Trochimczyk

Copies of the book will be available for purchase. More information about the book and the featured readers is below.

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.

Crystal Fire Anthology Reading at Scenic Drive Gallery, 2022. L to R: Mary Elliot, Bory Thach, Marlene Hitt, Alice Pero, Joe DeCenzo, Ambika Talwar, Maja Trochimczyk

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. [...] 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

Ambika Talwar, “Heavens Lake Diptych” ~ Right, Acrylic / 1994

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

https://moonrisepress.blogspot.com/2023/04/michael-escoubas-reviews-crystal-fire.html

Ambika Talwar, “Meridians” ~ Acrylics / 1996

Joe DeCenzo

Joe DeCenzo grew up in Los Angeles and majored in theater and English Literature. From 2004-06 he served as the third poet laureate of Sunland- Tujunga. He produced the Shouting Coyote performing arts festival and was a Department of Cultural Affairs grant recipient. His published works include The Ballad of Alley and Hawk and the Study Guide and Poetry Primer. His poems also appeared in Meditations on Divine Names (2012), We Are Here: Village Poets Anthology (2020), and on the Village Poets blog. Joe currently serves on the planning committee for the Village Poets of Sunland-Tujunga and as Chair of Poet Laureate Search Committee. In addition to his volunteer work for Village Poets, Joe DeCenzo was involved in developing or creating: 2002 Shouting Coyote Poetry Festival, 2004 Shouting Coyote Performing Arts Festival, 2005 Mother's Day Brunch at Bolton Hall, 2006 Commerce Ave Fair/Shouting Coyote Poetry Slam, and the annual Hanukkah in the Foothills Celebration.

The Crystal Fire anthology includes the following poems by Joe DeCenzo: Where the Road Bends; It’s Never Too Early; Lasagna; For What October Brings; Between the Lines; Would You Ever Know?, Love’s Cliché, With Gratitude, and In Joy and Jacaranda.

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.

Ambika Talwar, “Little Blue Moon”~ Acrylic / 1996

Elzbieta Czajkowska

Elzbieta Czajkowska is a professional Translator, Transcriptionist, certified NLP Coach MA/MCC, Graphic Designer, English Second Language Teacher, Poet, and PR Manager. She worked for many years as Public Relations (PR) Manager for the EWELINEB fashion brand, where she also produced music for such fashion shows as the famous Fashion Week in NYC, in London, and Amsterdam, and has written articles and press release for such events. A person of many interests, talents, and skills, Ms.

Czajkowska was born in Poland.. Ever since she was a little girl, she possessed a deep-seated love for all things creative and artistic, and for learning languages, with English having a very a special place in her heart. She also loves music and likes to draw. She learned the secrets of the art of drawing, painting, and sculpting by attending the Creative Development Studio by Małgorzata Renes. As a graduate of two different music schools, she learned to play piano, clarinet, and percussion. Her love for writing was born in high school, where she first started writing poetry. Throughout the years, and different countries, poetry was her ever closer companion.

The anthology includes the following poems by Elzbieta Czajkowska: Of Sky, and Ocean, and Earth ; What Heart May Be Dreaming; The Sublime Senses; Given; I Burn; Fruits of Infinity; Close Enough; Circles; All You; and The Calling. The latter of these poems was nominated for 2022 Pushcart Prize by the editors of the California Quarterly where it first appeared.

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”

Ambika Talwar, “Vortices of Being” ~ Acrylic / 2004

Bory Thach

Bory Thach was born in a refugee camp located on the border between Thailand and Cambodia. His family immigrated to the United States when he was four years old. He served in the U.S. Army and deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has an MFA from California State University San Bernardino. Fiction and creative nonfiction fall under the art of storytelling, while poetry for him is more of a study of language, an art form in itself. His work appeared or is forthcoming in: Pacific Review, Urban Ivy, Arteidolia, Sand Canyon Review and We Are Here: Village Poets Anthology. He recently completed a book of poetry dialogues with Cindy Rinne, Letters under Rock (2019) that has been presented as a quasi-theatrical performance in art galleries and museums in Southern California. He joined the Editorial Board of the California Quarterly in July 2020 and started his duties from volume 47, No. 1 of the CQ.

The anthology includes the following poems by Bory Thach: Soul-spirit; Memory; Yesterday I was a Nightingale; Fireflies in Moonlight; I Fell in Love with the Quietly Flowing River; My Desert; Mirage; Migration; and Awaken.

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.

Ambika Talwar, “Quiet Rainfall” ~ Acrylic / 1997

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 publishing numerous poetry chapbooks, she has authored a non- fiction book Sunland-Tujunga, from Village to City. Her poems appeared in Psychopoetica (UK), Chupa Rosa Diaries of the Chupa Rosa Writers, Sunland (2001-2003), Glendale College’s Eclipse anthologies, and three Moonrise Press anthologies (Chopin with Cherries, Meditations on Divine Names and We Are Here: Village Poets Anthology the latter of which she co-edited with Maja Trochimczyk in 2020). Her work was also featured in Sometimes in the Open, a collection of verse by California Poets Laureate, and The Coiled Serpent, anthology of Los Angeles poets, edited by Luis Rodriguez (2016). She served at the Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga as Museum Director and docent for many years. Ms. Hitt was the history writer for the Foothill Leader, Glendale News Press, North Valley Reporter, and Voice of the Village newspapers. She has been honored as the Woman of Achievement by the Business and Professional Women's Club, and Woman of the Year by the U.S. Congress. Her critically-acclaimed poetry collection Clocks and Water Drops was published in 2015 and her most recent collection, Yellow Tree Alone, appeared in 2023. In 2019, after retiring from active participation in Village Poets Readings, Marlene was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award, shared with her husband, Lloyd.

The Crystal Fire anthology features the following poems by Marlene Hitt: Long Time, Dive Deep, Journey, Field Trip with the Sixth Grade, Words from the Garden, A Room Full of Boxes, What Am I Thankful For?, So Close, In the Deepest Parts… , Reflecting, Echo, and Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day

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

Ambika Talwar, “Passion of the Lotus” ~ Acrylic / 1998

Alice Pero

Sunland/Tujunga’s 10th Poet Laureate, Alice Pero, began giving public readings of her work in 1984 in New York City. She has performed in dozens of venues in New York State, Austin, TX and Los Angeles. Pero’s poetry has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies including National Poetry Review, California Quarterly, We Are Here, Coiled Serpent, Wide Awake, Pratik, Altadena Poetry Review, San Diego Poetry Review and Crystal Fire. Her first book of poetry Thawed Stars was praised by renowned poet Kenneth Koch as having “clarity and surprises.” In addition to Thawed Stars, she published a poetic dialogue with Elsa Frausto, Sunland Park. (Shabda Press.) Her newest book, Beyond Birds and Answers, written as a dialogue with New York artist Vera Campion, has been featured in two reviews in the Poetry Letter no. 4, 2021, by Toti O'Brien and Neal Leadbeater. She founded the celebrated Moonday reading series in Los Angeles, which ran for almost 20 years on both the East and West Side of Los Angeles and she is now the artistic director of Village Poets reading series in Tujunga, CA. A passionate dialoguer, she has created works with over 25 poets in the US, England & Scotland. An accomplished flutist, Pero started the chamber music group, “Windsong,” in 2015. Since 2020 she has served on the board of the California State Poetry Society as Chair of Monthly Poetry Contests. Pero is also a teacher of poetry to children since 1991. You can find out more about Alice Pero's views on poetry, music, and creativity in the interview published on the Shoutout LA website: shoutoutla.com/meet-alice-pero-flutist-poet-poetry-teacher/

The Crystal Fire anthology includes ten poems by Alice Pero: Now; Southern CA Yard Chaos; Tree Nobility; Begin Again, Summer Solstice; What is Important?; Be It; Desert; Wind Song; If I Rise; Break the Lock.

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.

“Creative Vision of the Heart” ~ Acrylic / 1997

Ambika Talwar

. In recent winnings, Ambika shares with four others the Poiesis Award for Excellence in Literature (2021-22) for a short story. She received the Nissim International Poetry Prize (2021) for writing a poem daily for poetry month with The Significant League in April 2021. Ambika published a poem in The Force is With You – a collection to honor the Indian defense forces – her poem is for her father and his batch mates (2022): Timeless Inspirations (2022); Ruddy Ravens Cheshire Cat & Rusty Rats; Beyond Words; and Breathe Poetry (2021): Roseate Sonnet (2020). She is a monthly contributing poet to Glo-Mag. In 2016, Ambika published My Greece: Mirrors & Metamorphoses – a poetic-spiritual travelogue of her visit in 2002 that seeks to discover our collective human purpose. She asserts it is time for creatives to offer a new narrative to change our worldview, which has led to destructive ways to one that arises harmony.

A graceful and willing performer, she has read at various venues in Southern California and also at Eden Hall, Chatham University, Pittsburgh. Ambika also made a short film titled Androgyne in 2000 for which she earned the Best Original Story Award at a festival in Belgium. She wrote, produced, and directed this film. She has also written two original feature-length screenplays. As a wellness practitioner, Ambika practices Intuition- Energetics™, a powerful fusion of modalities and creativity principles for speedy recovery from ailments so you can experience being whole again. “Both poetry and holistic practices work beautifully together, for language is intricately coded in us. We must be free of false beliefs and confusions,” she notes. Recent retiree as English professor at Cypress College, California, Ambika makes her home in Los Angeles and in New Delhi, India. Sites: creativeinfinities.com goldenmatrixvisions.com. Interviews: loispjones.com/taoli-ambika-talwar/ Human Frequency Radio: youtube.com/watch?v=mn8w5Tg2yVQ

The Crystal Fire is illustrated with paintings by Ambika Talwar whose 14 poems are included in this volume: Wild Savant; Breath of Resonance; Torus for a Broken World; Joy in a Careless Breeze; Transmutation: A World In & Beyond Time; When Gratitude Rises in my Skin; Wings of Fire; We Are All the Beloved; Shades of a Dinner Meeting; A Dream of Indomitable Courage; Rose Haiku; Freely Wilding Grace; Melting Mirrors; Love is Our Immanent Soul Force.

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

Ambika Talwar, “Blue Arches” ~ Acrylic / 1998

Maja Trochimczyk

Maja Trochimczyk, the sixth Poet Laureate of Sunland Tujunga (2010-2012) and the publisher of Moonrise Press, is a poet, music historian, photographer, and non-profit director born in Poland and living in California. She published eight books on music, six volumes of poetry (Miriam’s Iris, Rose Always, Slicing the Bread, The Rainy Bread, Into Light, and Bright Skies), and five anthologies, including besides Crystal Fire: Chopin with Cherries, Meditations on Divine Names, Grateful Conversations (co-edited with Kathi Stafford) and We Are Here: Village Poets Anthology, co-edited with Marlene Hitt). Her poems appeared in: Altadena Poetry Review, Loch Raven Review, Epiphany Magazine, Lily Review, Ekphrasis Journal, Quill and Parchment, Magnapoets, The Cosmopolitan Review, The Scream Online, The Original Van Gogh’s Ear Anthology, Lummox Journal, Phantom Seed, Spectrum, Poezja Dzisiaj, OccuPoetry, Pisarze.pl, as well as anthologies by Poets on Site, Southern California Haiku Study Group, and others. In 2024, she was invited to join the prestigious Union of Polish Writers Abroad (Zwiazek Pisarzy Polskich na Obczyznie) based in London, UK.

As a music historian, Trochimczyk presented papers at over 90 national and international conferences in Poland, France, Germany, Hungary, U.K., Canada, and the U.S. She received awards and fellowships from ACLS, SSHRCC, USC, McGill University, MPE Fraternity, Polish American Historical Association, City and County of Los Angeles, and Poland’s Ministry of Culture. The Senior Director of Planning and Development at Phoenix Houses of California (since 2007), responsible for a total of over 200 million in awarded grants and contracts, she also serves as the President of the California State Poetry Society (since 2019) and the President of Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club (in 2010-12 and since 2018). Her six blogs (including PoetryLaurels.blogspot.com; ChopinwithCherries.blogspot.com) have had a combined total of over 1.3 million readers. Websites: Moonrisepress.com; CaliforniaStatePoetrySociety.com.

The Crystal Fire anthology includes 14 poems by Maja Trochimczyk, who also conceived of this project, convened poets and artists, edited and published the anthology: The Year of Crystal Fire; A Black Velvet Butterfly; Repeat After Me; The Infinity Room; Pelicans; Liquid Opal; The School of Birds; Alchemy in the Hills; The Stillness of Trees; Imagine a Star…; Arbor Cosmica; Like Grapes on a Vine; A Starchild’s Lesson; Today Is for Us.

Like Grapes on a Vine

—we grow and grow. Nourished by gold light and sapphire water,

we become sweeter as we age.

Last traces of bitterness and resentment dissolve into forgiveness.

Yes, it was a long road.

Yes, it was hard.

But we are here.

Grapes on the vine.

I’m kind to myself, kind to others, kind to the world.

I listen.

All grains of sand on the beach,

all dancing droplets in the ocean,

the salty mist on my lips – sing the song

of creation. Such a joy to be. Present.

Attentive—to the sparkling pathway

of sunlight leading beyond the horizon—

to the relentless rhythm of the waves

crushing all worry into smithereens.

Out flows my pain.

Out goes my sorrow.

In flows my peace.

In comes my gladness.

Like the ripening grapes on the vine

we become sweeter as we age.

A Starchild’s Lesson

I found the Philosopher’s Stone.
Transmogrification.
Fear into Love.
The lead of sorrow into
the pure gold of childlike laughter.
There is no other alchemy, but this.

“Shine”— said the Voice.
“Be fruitful”—Someone wrote
in the Great Book for all ages.
Even if half true, it is true enough.

Listen. Do not stray from your path.
You know what lies ahead —
past a frozen meadow of snowdrops
and sasanki, white and violet,
glowing with innocence in a forest clearing —

past peach orchards, misty with blizzards
of falling petals —past lakes of blooming lotus,
patiently stretching from mud to the Sun —
past golden fields of rye, ready for harvest,
to make bread for the journey—

Open the parasol of ancient wisdom above you —
for shelter, as you walk into the embrace
of your destiny and shine — shine — shine —

NOTE: Sasanka, plural sasanki is a Polish name of a spring wildflower called Pulsatilla or Pasqueflower from genus Anemone.

Ambika Talwar: “Heavens Lake Diptych” ~ Left, Acrylic / 1994

BIOS OF OTHER POETS FROM THE ANTHOLOGY

Mary Elliott is an American poet, writer, publicist, and arts enthusiast. Her poems have appeared in journals such as California Quarterly, Las Positas College of the Arts, in print through Wingless Dreamer, and elsewhere. Santa Barbara has been home to Elliott for over 30 years, where she was the Executive Director of the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Society, worked as an art dealer for a local gallery specializing in American art, and held several different marketing positions for various museums such as the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, MOXI – the Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation, and the Santa Barbara Zoological Gardens. Her favorite charities relate to fostering rescue dogs, children’s health issues, and public education. Originally from the Midwest, Elliott credits her parent’s stoic perseverance in difficult times, along with their love of music, art and literature as her biggest influences. They instilled in her the sense that art was sacred and transformative. When she’s not writing, Elliott is walking the trails of Santa Barbara where there are still places unfettered by “progress”. Elliott earned her English literature and language degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Jeff Graham studied English and Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. Author of the chapbook The Eye of Morning (Zeugma Impress Inc.), publications include appearances in journals such as Blue Unicorn, Indefinite Space, California Quarterly, Asheville Poetry Review and Grasslimb. Jeff is also a contributor to various haiku journals.

Frederick Livingston grew from the southern tip of the Salish Sea in Olympia, Washington. Ecology, experiential education, and peace building have given him years in rural Tanzania, Costa Rican highlands, the American West, and beyond. His writing has appeared in numerous literary magazines, scientific journals, and public spaces. His first collection of poetry, The Moon and Other Fruits, is expected in early 2023.

Allegra Jostad Silberstein grew up on a farm in Wisconsin but has lived in California since 1963. Her love of poetry began as a child...her mother would recite poems as she worked. In addition to three chapbooks ofpoetry, she has been widely published in journals with a growing number on-line. Her first book of poems, West of Angels was published by Cold River Press in March of 2015. In March of 2010 she became the first Poet Laureate for the city of Davis, California serving for two years. Dance is a great love of her life. She dances and performs with Panela Trokanski’s Third Stage dance company. She was accepted in the company in 1994 and now at 91 still dances but has a minor role. She also sings with the Davis Threshold Choir. Allegra lives on a half acre of land and tending to the earth enriches her spirit.

Jane Stuart (Jessica Jane Stuart) is a writer and poet, born on August 20, 1942. She completed her Bachelor’s degree at Western Reserve University, Cleveland in 1964; the Master of Arts at Indiana University, Bloomington, in 1969; and the Doctor of Philosophy, Indiana University, Bloomington, 1971. She taught at the University Florida, Gainesville; Santa Fe Community College, Gainesville; St. John's River Community College, St. Augustine, Florida; and Flagler College, St. Augustine, Florida. Her poetry books include: A Heart Shaped Moon (Cameo, 2002), Candlelady (Cameo, 2002), Journeys (Summit Poetry Press, 1998), Moon Over Miami (Poetry Forum Press, 1995), Passage Into Time (Big Easy Press, 1994), Sestinas (Cameo, 2000), and The Turning Year (Cameo, 2005). She is a member of: Society of America Poets, Mississippi Poetry Society, Oregon Poetry Society, Arizona State Poetry Society, Kentucky State Poetry Society, California State Poetry Society, American Tanka Society, American Haiku Society, as well as Phi Beta Kappa and Eta Sigma Phi.

PHOTOS FROM THE READING

During the reading, Marlene Hitt was absent so there were six poets present and six absent. Maja Trochimczyk read one poem each for all those who could not attend.