Tuesday, June 24, 2025

Ella Czajkowska presents Alchemy of Words at Monthly Reading of Village Poets in Tujunga

On June 22, 2025, Ella Czajkowska presented "Alchemy of Words" at Monthly Reading of Village Poets at the Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga. In her introduction of the featured poet, Maja Trochimczyk cited the following about the poet and the book. 

"Her love of creative writing was born in high school, where she started writing poetry and short stories. In 2015, Ella started to write poetry in both Polish and English, and from 2017 she writes only in English. Her book of Polish language poetry, entitled “Tam, gdzie umierają marzenia”, was published in Rzeszów by Sowello in 2019. Her English-language poems appeared in the California Quarterly and the Crystal Fire anthology (Moonrise Press, 2022). She was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2022 by the California State Poetry Society for her poem The Calling.

  

"Ella worked for many years as Public Relations (PR) Manager for the EWELINEB brand. She has produced music and PR materials for fashion shows at the Fashion Week in New York, London, and Amsterdam, among others. Ella’s other great passion and inspiration in life is music. Surrounded by it her whole life, with both her father and mother having graduated from prestigious music schools, there was always a great respect for art and culture in her family home. All throughout her childhood she would be taken to theaters and opera houses, where her love for opera, ballet, and classical music ever grew. A graduate of two music schools, Ella learned to play piano, clarinet, and percussion—piano remains her favorite instrument to this day. A true Renaissance person with a wide range of interests, talents, and knowledge, she was born in Warsaw, Poland and lives in Los Angeles, California."


Roza Yoder, Beata Czajkowska, E. Czajkowska, Maja Trochimczyk, June 22, 2025

The Alchemy of Words is the first English-language poetry book of Ella Czajkowska who previously published a book of poems in Polish. These 70 poems deal with themes of nature, divinity, human emotions, existential contemplation and the complexities of life. The poems explore the beauty and terror of natural world, the fleeting nature of joy, the struggles of existence, and the interplay of love and hate. Through vivid imagery and entrancing verse, the poems evoke a sense of wonder and introspection. They invite readers to an adventure of  exploring human experience, reflecting upon the intricacies of life and the power of language and art. 



"Elzbieta's poems electrify, like touching a spark to gunpowder, seeing a starless sky explode in a blaze of colors. Exciting. Original. Thought provoking. Inspiring." ~ Marek Probosz, actor, director, and writer. "Ella Czajkowska ushers a voice of sublime sincerity into our increasingly outlandish human realm." ~ Piotr D. Siemion, Ph.D., Author and Essayist.

The Sublime Senses 

               Until the heart stops it desires.

               Until the mind stills it aspires;

 

                Until the senses take 

                their leave they deceive—

                such dreams they weave...




The Calling

 

Take my hand, we shall drink golden starlight 


from the brass chalice of curiosity,


adorn our hair with stars’ glittering light. 


We shall clothe ourselves in silver moonlight 


and blush our faces with sunlight’s kiss,


and dance through the dust of time unmeasured, 


whirl till we are dizzy with awe 


and drunk on the songs of the universe.


 I have not truly known freedom until 

I have shaken off the chains of attachments

to this world, this low-land

—of biological, mechanical, electric—

of static, of moving, till I felt the seductive

beckoning of the ephemeral,

the limitless melody of cosmos.

 

I measure myself in dawns and twilights, 

in inhales and exhales, breathless moments, 

in dreams and daydreams and nightmares

as I unravel into blooming.

I am a flower floating eternally,

a soundless drifting in space on waves

of the darkly enchanting oceans, 

nebulae of purples and pinks.

 

And I dare you to not heed my calling, 

and I dare you to resist the pulling, 

the fire, the resonance in the bones

which leaves the traitorous flesh a-trembling.

And I hail to you: Come! We shall walk down, 

down to the center, down to the core,

down to the end of all, down till it’s up, 

until it becomes the beginning.


Joe DeCenzo, Ella Czajkowska, Susan Dobay, Maja Trochimczyk, Bory Thach at reading from "Crystal Fire" anthology at Scenic Drive Gallery, Monrovia, 2022.

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’







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