New Review of "Mud in Magic" by Beverly M. Collins

Wonderful Poems and Prose - by Patricia Nolan Stein 

" “Mud In Magic” is a powerful book. This collection of poems and prose, written by Beverly M. Collins, is thoughtful and beautifully expressed.

Each poem contains the richness of a wonderful novel or an uplifting film. Every sentence tells a tale of love, joy, gratitude, courage and reflection.

And each “story” Beverly shares through her prose is unique. Every poem contains a strong storyline with vivid images.

Beverly includes a variety of subjects in this book—from Picasso and the beauty of autumn to relationships, growing up in New Jersey and visiting India. But there are many more wonderful topics, all written with an enjoyable slice of humanity, that will make any reader smile.

Beverly’s poems are very special to me. She writes from the heart and expresses herself in a very personal way. But as she shares her innermost feelings, she seems to speak for many of us. There’s a stream of consciousness that makes each poem fascinating.

I love Beverly’s prose and poetry and I recommend "Mud In Magic" to anyone who enjoys feeling enlightened through the written word.

Bevery M. Collins with Maja Trochimczyk at the Altadena Poetry Review Reading, April 2017.

Mud in Magic by Beverly M. Collins

Published in July 2015

ISBN  978-0-9963981-0-7 (paperback), $15.00, 96 pages.

ISBN 978-0-9963981-1-4 (e-book, E-Pub format), $8.00

Beverly M. Collins’s "Mud in Magic" is her second poetry book, filled with the wisdom 

of experience, Her skillful and often aphoristic or narrative poems portray a scene or a character that we could encounter on our streets, in our cafes. The poems are organized into three parts: Thought Bistro (Part I), Tinder Flames (Part II), and Elixir Café (Part III). The beauty and wonder of daily life fill these pages and delight the readers. Beverly M. Collins is fourth in a family of five daughters. Although born in Milford, Delaware, Bev is a Jersey-girl to the bone. She is also a graduate of Taylor Business Institute, a great admirer of Art who carries a deep appreciation and respect for other Artists. As a singer, Collins is a former national finalist for Talent America. As a poet, she is one of three 2012 prize winners for the California State Poetry Society whose works appear in a growing number of publications. More information and a sample poem may be found on another issue of the Moonrise Press Blog.

OTHER POETS ABOUT THIS BOOK

Beverly M. Collins' poetry is much like her: Courageous, wise and imaginative. It is a thunder clap in the middle of Manhattan, a bolt of lightning on a desert island off of Spain. But in the end, it is its power, rhythm and clarity that make it rise to the level of art. Miss it at your own risk.  ~ Radomir Vojtech Luza, Poet Laureate of North Hollywood, Pushcart Prize Nominee

Beverly M. Collins writes poetry that is a celebration of woman. She takes everyday experiences however varied and transforms them into a serene acceptance which is emotionally extremely fulfilling. Beverly M. Collins' (her) poems are gems of rare understanding.  ~ Mary A. Mann, Author, www.maryanneetamann.com

Maja Trochimczyk Receives the 2016 Creative Arts Prize from the Polish American Historical Association

During the 74th Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado, held on January 5-7, 2017, the Polish American Historical Association presented its Annual Awards for 2016 to a group of distinguished individuals, including Dr. Maja Trochimczyk who received the Creative Arts Prize for her poetry. In January 2016, Dr. Trochimczyk presented a reading of poems from "Slicing the Bread" at the 73rd Annual Meeting of PAHA, held in Atlanta, Georgia. 

The Awards were presented by PAHA's outgoing President and acclaimed literary scholar, Prof. Grazyna Kozaczka of Cazenovia College, NY, whose award citation is quoted below.

Dr. Maja Trochimczyk with President Grazyna Kozaczka, 

with Prof. Anna Mazurkiewicz in the background.

CREATIVE ARTS PRIZE

"The Creative Arts Award is bestowed on Dr. Maja Trochimczyk, for her achievements as a poet, especially in her two books dedicated to Polish victims of WWII, Slicing the Bread (Finishing Line Press, 2014), and The Rainy Bread (Moonrise Press, 2016). Her books of poetry include Rose Always, 2008; Miriam’s Iris, 2008; Into Light, 2016; and two anthologies, Chopin with Cherries, 2010, and Meditations on Divine Names, 2012. Dr. Trochimczyk served as Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga, Los Angeles in 2010-2012 and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2016."

Recognized by the Creative Arts Prize by the Polish American Historical Association

http://www.moonrisepress.com/the-rainy-bread-by-maja-trochimczyk.html

Published by Finishing Line Press, 2014.

http://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2014/07/finishing-line-press-to-publish-slicing.html

http://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2015/04/holocaust-memorials-and-reviews-of.html

First Reading from "The Rainy Bread" at Generations Remember 2016 Conference in Warsaw

The first official reading from The Rainy Bread. Poems from Exile book of poetry by Maja Trochimczyk, published in August 2016, took place on September 19, 2016, in Warsaw, at the Uniwersytet Warszawski's Faculty of Sociology, during an event co-sponsored by the History Meeting House (Dom Spotkan z Historia) and organized by the Kresy Siberia Foundation, an international non-profit headquartered in Australia.

The reading was the first presentation at the Generations Remember 2016 International Conference of descendants and survivors of Soviet deportations of Poles to Siberia, Kazachstan, etc.during and before WWII.  According to scholar and artist Adrian Palka (Coventry University), it was exceptionally well received  and set the tone for the whole day,  being an instance of what Palka called "post-memory" - the second generation of children of survivors internalizing and describing their parents' experiences, as if these experiences were their own.  The reading was bilingual, in Polish and English, but for now, only the English version is available in print.

The book is available from lulu.com, in paperback and eBook formats.  A bilingual English-Polish version with translations and additional poems is in preparation.

The author, Maja Trochimczyk was selected for a radio interview by WNET Radio, representing California, along with architect Barbara Gdowski of Perth, representing Australia, and Stefan Szewczuk, President of Poles in South America organization.

At the Radio WNET Studio, with Stefan Szewczuk, and Barbara Gdowski

With Maciej Czarkowski, who organized the interview for WNET Radio.

The conference itself was well-documented in the media, with news reports, and interviews, including a report by Polish TV Polonia:  http://polonia24.tvp.pl/27038817/sybiracy. Other links to follow.

For a program, speakers and other information about the conference, visit Kresy-Siberia.org website.

The Desert Hat Reading at Bolton Hall Museum, November 24 at 4:30 pm

The next reading from Ed Rosenthal's "The Desert Hat" will take place on Sunday, November 24, 2013 at 4:30 p.m. at the Monthly Village Poets Reading at Bolton Hall Museum. The Bolton Hall, which is the City of Los Angeles's Historical Monument No. 2, is located on 10110 Commerce Avenue in Tujunga, CA 91042.

Read more about this event on Village Poets blog:

http://villagepoets.blogspot.com/2013/10/ed-rosenthals-desert-hat-and-susan.html


Read an update about Ed Rosenthal's ordeal and survival on Downtown News blog by Jack Skelley with a capsule review of the book:

"Just over three years ago, after making a wrong turn on a hike, Ed Rosenthal, The Poet Broker of Downtown L.A., was lost for 6 days in Joshua Tree National Park. ... The temperature climbed above 100 degrees every day that week. Miraculously, Ed survived. Now, three years later, he has processed the experience. Beautifully. Ed has just published The Desert Hat, Survival Poems (Moonrise Press). And reading it is an astonishing experience in its own right. If Ed has just recounted his dramatic story, that would have been a good read. But Ed is a poet. He gropes for elusive meanings in his transformational desert suffering. Recurring images broaden into symbols, link, and elevate the book into, essentially, one extended poem." ~ Jack Skelley
http://jsprla.com/updates/2013/11/13/surviving-was-a-big-deal-for-downtowns-poet-broker

The Hat in The Desert Hat by Ed Rosenthal

Ed Rosenthal in Descanso Gardens, CA, Photo by Maja Trochimczyk

The Desert Hat  is a volume of poetry inspired by a six-and-a-half-day ordeal of Ed Rosenthal, a Poet-Broker, who survived alone after being lost in the Mojave Desert in September 2010.  An experienced hiker, he unexpectedly veered far away from his usual route and could not find his way back. He found refuge in Salvation Canyon, was several times missed by search-and-rescue aircraft and helicopters, and finally, miraculously was found by San Bernardino County Sheriff's Deputies.

The wry, surreal, and reflective poems in The Desert Hat: Survival Poems describe the spiritual trajectory of a survivor living through a close encounter with death, starting from alienation in a corporate urban environment and ending with the post-trauma reflections about life and natural environment.

The book consists of 36 poems organized in four sections, reflecting the distinct stages in the spiritual and personal journey, from getting off track, through searching for a way back, hallucination in a hostile desert environment, finding shelter in the shade of Salvation Canyon, being rescued, and experiencing the world after the return from the brink of death.  The title alludes to a canvas hat that Rosenthal used as a notebook and helped the lost poet control his thoughts, capture emotions, and write down his last will and a farewell to his wife and daughter.

The volume is illustrated with photos of the various sections of the famous hat that helped the poet survive his ordeal. He wrote messages to his family, including instructions for the wake and farewells. The photos were taken by Maja Trochimczyk in September 2013 in Descanso Gardens, along with a portrait of the poet-broker, who was wearing his lucky white shirt - it did not even get torn during the six and a half days in the desert.

Here's one of the title poems, The Hat I:

The Hat I

I got to the place out of the sun after a three day search

the first day looking for an exit, the second hiding

under a tree, the third morning of survival

A cold moon follows the blistering vision of day

I went downhill for succor, for a friend to lean against

from sun and night wind

In short-sleeve shirt and shorts I had to hide

under a clamshell rock with a split orange face

till the sun slapped me to wake again

I ran in here to the blessed salvation canyon of shadows

Seeing I would outlive that day’s sun and maybe

only another, I turned my hat to a mirror,

my pen to my blood’s red artery

“My dear wife and daughter, I lost the trail of celebration

of deals. I may never see you, read my wish and will.”

Out in a desert canyon my love poured onto nylon flaps

inside seams and creases as the mirror turned into

a bouquet of pomegranates and apricots

for a circle of friends gathered by the barbecue of stewed tomatoes, candied rice 

with roasted meats and broiled fish at my wake of smoking and carousing,

with the clink of vodka glasses,

per my will, written on my desert hat

to be executed by my beloved 

for my only child.  

__________________________________________________

ABOUT THE DESERT HAT

 In "The Desert Hat," Los Angeles poet/real estate broker Ed Rosenthal presents the mythopoetic journey through his real-life experience of being lost for 6 days in remote canyons of the Mojave Desert's Joshua Tree National Park in September, 2010. "The Desert Hat" delves deeply into the wildest and unpredictable heart of the Mojave into a storied landscape that Rosenthal renders as both recognizable to the reader and also deeply specific to his solitary and unanticipated experience, and in these poems, creates an empathetic and spiritually-affirming desert landscape that resonates within all of our desert hearts. 

 ~ Ruth Nolan 
 Professor of English @ College of the Desert 
California desert poet, writer, editor,conservationist & scholar 

 Ed Rosenthal’s The Desert Hat not only recounts an incredibly vivid story of survival, but maps out the dangerous journeys of the heart and the imagination in that hallucinatory place between mind and body, between nature and man, between the past and the future. Like poet James Wright, Rosenthal ”goes/ Back to the broken ground” of the self and finds a stranger there trapped in the cosmology of an endless, unpitying desert. As the stark “sun burns holes/ into the sky” the psyche’s true-north compass finds salvation’s shade. Rosenthal climbed out of “the busted monster’s mouth” with a beautiful, moving

book.

 ~ Elena Karina Byrne 
Executive Director of AVK Arts 
author of The Flammable Bird, Masque and Squander 

 The “poet-broker” Ed Rosenthal was inspired by surviving alone in the Mojave Desert for six and a half days. Rosenthal’s poetry does not recount his experience in detail; it is not replete with maps, photographs, and a day-by-day account of his adventures. Instead, we gain an insight into what it means to be truly lost and found, to survive the strangest of desert nights and return to the heart of the city… with a newly found wisdom and zest for life.

 ~ Maja Trochimczyk, Ph.D. 
President, Moonrise Press

_________________________________________________

The Desert Hat

Paperback print edition
ISBN 978-0-9819693-7-4

74 pages, $15.00.

 http://www.lulu.com/shop/ed-rosenthal/the-desert-hat/paperback/product-21238943.html

E-Book, $10.00

ISBN  978-0-9819693-9-8  

http://www.lulu.com/shop/ed-rosenthal/the-desert-hat/ebook/product-21239406.html   

Publisher's Spotlight on Lulu.com: 

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/moonrisepress

Announcing Ed Rosenthal's The Desert Hat - Survival Poems after Being Lost in the Mojave

Moonrise Press's next publication will be a volume of poetry inspired by a six-and-a-half-day ordeal of Ed Rosenthal, a Poet-Broker, who survived alone after being lost in the Mojave Desert in September 2010.  An experienced hiker, he unexpectedly veered far away from his usual route and could not find his way back. He found refuge in Salvation Canyon, was several times missed by search-and-rescue aircraft and helicopters, and finally, miraculously was found by San Bernardino Sheriff's Deputies.

The wry, surreal, and reflective poems in The Desert Hat: Survival Poems describe the spiritual trajectory of a survivor living through a close encounter with death, starting from alienation in a corporate urban environment and ending with the post-trauma reflections about life and natural environment.

The book consists of over 30 poems organized in four sections, reflecting the distinct stages in the spiritual and personal journey, from getting off track, through searching for a way back, hallucination in a hostile desert environment, finding shelter in the shade of Salvation Canyon, being rescued, and experiencing the world after the return from the brink of death.  The title alludes to a canvas hat that Rosenthal used as a notebook and helped the lost poet control his thoughts, capture emotions, and write down his last will and a farewell to his wife and daugther.

This is Ed Rosenthal's first book-length publication. Forthcoming in 2013.

______________________________________________________________

From a review of  Meditations on Divine Names published online on Deacon's Blog in August 2012.

"The poets belong to different religions or religious denominations. They see the manifestations of the divine in many aspects of life – personal prayer, religious ceremonies, singing of psalms, family relationships, nature, sun, sky, bread making, loving, and love making. They admire the colors of the sky and the liquid nourishment of water. The clarity of mountain air and the gentleness of human touch. From the four letters of YHWH to Lada or Pele, the anthology catalogs some unusual divine names. Poets reflect on the act of naming, the facts of knowing and unknowing of our God(s). They give testimony to their hopes and beliefs, and share what they find beautiful and inspirational, or, sometimes, disturbing. There is darkness around and death, but the poets look for ways to ascend above, to illumination."

Deacon Jim on the Deacon's Blog, August 2012.

Moonrise Press Presents Theater "Hybrydy" from Warsaw, Poland - March 9, 2013

TEATR HYBRYDY

Rushing running living

PoLISH POETRY AND MUSIC

WHO:  Hybrydy Student Theater of The University of Warsaw

Piano and Voice – Dominika Świątek | Narration – Bartłomiej Ardecki

Guitar – Marcin Dąbrowski | Directed by Maciej Dzięciołowski

WHERE: Ruskin Art Club, 800 S. Plymouth, Los Angeles, CA 90005

WHEN: Saturday, 9 March 2013, 6:30 p.m.

WHAT:  Music theater inspired by the poetry and music  of Czeslaw Milosz, Zbigniew Herbert, Juliusz Slowacki Jacek Kaczmarski, Marian Hemar, Wladyslaw Szpilman

Performed by Dominika Świątek, Bartłomiej Ardecki and Marcin Dąbrowski. Directed by Maciej Dzięciołowski. Performed in Polish with English translations.

RSVP: Moonrise Press, c/o Maja Trochimczyk, PO Box 4288 Sunland CA 91041-4288;

$25 per person, $15 students PayPal: maja.trochimczyk@gmail.com Tel. 818 352 4411

DIRECTIONS

North of 10, South-west of 101;

West of Crenshaw Blvd and South

Of Wilshire Blvd.  Street Parking.

TEATR HYBRYDY

GoniMy dopóki zywi

Polska POEZJA i MUZYKA

KTO:  Studencki Teatr Hybrydy Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego

Fortepian/Śpiew – Dominika Świątek | Recytacja – Bartłomiej Ardecki

Gitara – Marcin Dąbrowski | Reżyseria Maciej Dzięciołowski

GDZIE: Ruskin Art Club, 800 S. Plymouth, Los Angeles, CA 90005

KIEDY: Sobota, 9 marca 2013 r., godz. 18.30 wieczorem

CO: Teatr inspirowany poezją i muzyką Czesława Miłosza,

 Zbigniewa Herberta, Juliusza Słowackiego, Jacka Kaczmarskiego,

Mariana Hemara, Jerzego Jurandota, i Władysława Szpilmana

w wykonaniu Dominiki Świątek, Bartłomieja Ardeckiego

i Marcina Dąbrowskiego, w reżyserii Macieja Dzięciołowskiego.

Angielskie przekłady w programie.

RSVP: Moonrise Press, c/o Maja Trochimczyk,

PO Box 4288 Sunland CA 91041-4288;

$25 od osoby, $15 dla studentow

PayPal: maja.trochimczyk@gmail.com

Tel: 818 352 4411

DOJAZD

Na północ od 10, południowy zachód od 101;

na zachód od Crenshaw Blvd i na południe

od Wilshire Blvd.  Parking na ulicach.

  

Memento Vitae - Now in Spanish Translation!

The wonderful poet Elsa S. Frausto, raised in Argentina and living in Southern California, has added another link to our International Translation Project. "Memento Vitae" by Maja Trochimczyk now appears in Spanish.  We would love to find a place for it on a Spanish-language blog or poetry zine. The poem was previously published in English, Serbian, Polish and French.


Memento Vitae

Hablemos de morir.
El jadeo del último suspiro.
El fin. O quizás no.
No lo sabemos.
Hablemos del último día.
¿Qué harías si lo supieses?
¿A quién amarías?
¿Encontrarías tu más querido,
tu más secreto amor?
¿O sólo te quedarías en el círculo
que te contiene?
¿Robarías o insultarías a alguien?
¿Llorarías?
¿Quemarías tus papeles?
¿Si el tejido de tu futuro
se abreviara en un día,
o quizás sólo en una hora?
Hablemos entonces de vivir.
Tu siguiente aliento,
el que te llevará
al siguiente minuto,
al latir que sigue.
Casi- ahora.

Translation- Elsa S. Frausto
                  January 21, 2013

Elsa S. Frausto's work has appeared in many local and international publications, among them Porte des Poetes, Speechlessthemagazine, Poem of the Month in Poets at Work, Badlands and Poets on Site. She was the coordinator and host for Camelback Readings held at the Sunland-Tujunga Library. She has been a member of the Chuparosa Writers for many years and is Poetry Editor and Translator for the Spanish language literary magazine la-luciernaga.com

Memento Vitae

Let's talk about dying.
The gasp of last breath.
The end. Or maybe not,
We don't know.
Let's talk about the last day.
What would you do
if you knew?
Whom would you love?
Would you find your dearest,
most mysterious love?
Or would you just stay
in the circle of your own?
Would you rob, steal
or insult anyone?
Would you cry?
Burn your papers?
If the fabric of your future
shrank to one day,
or maybe just an hour?
Let's talk about living, then.
The next breath,
that will take you
to the next minute,
the next heartbeat.
Just about - now.

(c) 2008 by Maja Trochimczyk

The original version of this poem was published in October 2009, in the Clockwise Cat:  http://clockwisecat.blogspot.com/2009/10/two-poems-by-maja-trochimczyk.html