Readings from "Grateful Conversations" Anthology on November 25, 2018 and February 15, 2019

"Grateful Conversations" Group Reading, October 7, 2018

Grateful Conversations anthology is going places... A college professor in Australia wants to adopt this anthology for her course on gratitude. The anthology made it into the hands of famous poet Dana Gioia..

Maja Trochimczyk with Dana Gioia and Grateful Conversations. Photo by Dawn Jenkins

The very first appearance of this anthology in public was during the "Gathering of California's Poets Laureate" - an event hosted by Dana Gioia, organized by the California Arts Council and held on October 6, 2018 at the McGroarty Arts Center in Tujunga.

Maja Trochimczyk with "Grateful Conversations" and Robin Coste-Lewis, Photo by Dawn Jenkins

Maja Trochimczyk read her poem "In Morning Light" and presented copies  of the anthology to Dana Gioia, California Poet Laureate and former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, Robin Coste Lewis, Los Angeles Poet Laureate, and Anne Bown-Crawford, Executive Director of the California Arts Council. The reading was filmed so hopefully the book will make it into the documentary about Poets Laureate.

Stage and audience at McGroarty Arts Center

McGroarty Arts Center, former home of California Poet Laureate John Steven McGroarty.

The first public presentation of the "Grateful Conversations" anthology was supposed to take place on Sunday, October 7, 2018 at 5 p.m. at the Flintridge Bookstore and Coffeehouse, in La Canada - Flintridge (1010 Foothill Blvd).  Now it is the second. The reading was free and books were available to purchase and have autographed by the poets. 

Seven poets  presented their work (Lois P. Jones, Susan Rogers, Madeleine S. Butcher, Maja Trochimczyk, Kathi Stafford, Ambika Talwar and Sonya Sabanac) but all poets will be  represented, as work by Georgia Jones-Davis and the group's founder Millicent Borges Accardi will also be read.

Photo by Lucyna Przasnyski.

You can explore the anthology's poems and find out about the poets on Moonrise Press Blog http://moonrisepress.blogspot.com/2018/06/sample-poems-from-grateful.html

Photo by Lucyna Przasnyski

You can read the introduction with the table of contents on Moonrise Press Blog http://moonrisepress.blogspot.com/2018/05/grateful-conversations-poetry-anthology.html

Photo by Lucyna Przasnyski

The paperback is available from Amazon.com
https://www.amazon.com/Grateful-Conversations-Anthology-Maja-Trochimczyk/dp/1945938226

Photo by Lucyna Przasnyski

 The ebook with color photos is available from kobo.com
https://www.kobo.com/my/en/ebook/grateful-conversations-a-poetry-anthology


The following readings are planned:

1) at the Bolton Hall Museum (Sunday, November 25, 2018, Sunday after Thanksgiving, with Marc Achuff, classical guitar and Krak Poetry Group Celebrating the Centennial of Poland's Regained Independence),
2) at Beyond Baroque (Friday, February 15, 2019 at 8 pm),
3) at the Rapp Saloon in Santa Monica (hosted by Elena Secota, date TBD),
4) in Ventura, hosted by Phil Taggart (4 April 2019).

California poetry journal, Quill and Parchment will post a preview and a review of the book in coming months.

The poets will also appear on Poets' Cafe hosted by Lois P. Jones and other promotional activities are in preparation.

Forthcoming Poetry Books by Mina Kirby and Marlene Hitt

Moonrise Press will publish volumes by two Southern-California based poets: Mina Kirby and Marlene Hitt.  Both volumes are in preparation and will be finalized in 2015. They belong to the series of books by female poets that will be issued by the Moonrise Press.

MINA KIRBY 

Mina Kirby is a retired mathematics professor. She has survived a broken washing machine, a broken back and a broken heart, all of which provide rich material for writing poetry and stories. She has for many years been a folk singer and sometimes songwriter. Plagued with health problems in recent years, her writing is part of coming back to life. Mina is the author of several books, including Mathematical Dreams: Songs about Mathematics, a cookbook, and eight chap books. Her poetry has been included in Red Lights (tanka), The San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, and Poetry and Cookies. She has presented her poetry at a number of venues, including Pasadena Art Talk. She lives in Altadena with her husband, daughter, two cats, a pet rat, and too many spiders.

A Special Place

by Mina Kirby

It is warm here

Golden rays of sunshine

brighten green fields

fragrant with yellow flowers

The air sparkles

with hums of bees

and chirps of soaring birds

A gentle breeze ruffles my hair

In the distance

are sounds of an ocean’s roar

as it splashes against rocks

I could be here

yesterday

tomorrow

and today

I could be here in the sun

and the softly falling rain

in the cheerful daylight

and in the velvety darkness

I could be here with you

feel the warmth of your hand in mine

talk until the moon goes down

and stars sparkle in the night sky

We could walk

for miles and miles

absorbing the beauty

surrounding us

Or

I could be here alone

a little sadder

but content

as perhaps

some day

I will

cloaked in sunshine

remembering you

_____________________________________

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 poetry chapbooks, anthologies and readings, she has authored a non-fiction book "Sunland-Tujunga, from Village to City". She serves at the Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga as Museum Director and docent. In addition to her poetry activities, she has served as history writer for the Foothill Leader and the Glendale News Press, the North Valley Reporter, the Voice of the Village newspaper, and the Shadow Hills Property Owners Association newsletter. She has been honored as the Woman of Achievement by the Business and Professional Women's Club. She lives happily ever after with her husband Lloyd and an outdoor cat named Lautrémont.

SALT OF THE EARTH

Was I born with a curse, I the curious child?
Eyes, ears, fingers cursed?
My view sweeps over, above, below and behind,
I want to see.
A roar turns me to it, a bang turns my head.
The darkness of the desert engulfs me, I touch it
and it collides with my young body.

Today the earth shook and shook, tore itself
apart, threw out fire and brimstone.
Don’t look back, he told me, with
no explanation. My head turned of its own accord.
The grey blue of the Dead Sea was shattered
with its shaking, a river of fire poured forth
and I did watch it all, why should I not see
a thing never before seen?

Don’t look back, he’d said to me, at the evil
of Sodom and Gomorrah, 
run, he said, then he pulled me along.
It is said that I was covered with fire and brimstone.
There is a rumor that I yearned for the city
but I didn’t. An attack on my self that 
I did not obey!
I am a curious woman, that was my sin.

I have stood here for years and years mourning
my chance at life, my children, I, now 
the pillar of salt in the desert, stiff, my face
glistening these thousands of years.
It is said that my face wears resignation.
I see, I watch, all the days of all the years.
I watch a nation and I do see.

© 2007 Marlene Hitt