Poetry of Valentines, Love, and Roses

Happy Valentine's Day to all happy and unhappy lovers. All lovers should be happy, even if their love is gone, dead, or lost in the mist of time. It is the supreme gift of having been able to feel what generations of poets have felt, from the divine Sappho until today...

For lovers of love poetry, Maja Trochimczyk's Rose Always - A Court Love Story was all in dew-drop rose-red, and filled with love poetry of delight, desire, fulfillment, and heartbreak. All versions of this book were withdrawn in 2018.

"This novella in verse is a tragedy; intense love against betrayal...Love is a strange truth--no two loves are the same. There are spiritual depths in each being. It is astonishing to see a woman's soul clearly in public in the white heat of love, the thought light of kisses sparkling on skin, the departure point into worlds. Even after it seemed lost her love takes a deeper spiritual form; she continues to love..." ~ Russell Salamon

Rose Always - No. 58

I’ve never done so much

to destroy a love, yet it lives on,

lingers in the corners of my soul,

explodes like summer fire, joy ineffable

con moto, agitato

I’ve never seen so much beauty

in one body, outlined by a halo of grace,

smooth lover’s sweat at midnight,

bright morning sunrays, light invincible

sotto, colla voce

I’ve never felt so much

desire, blinding me to all

but your heartbeat, the warm touch

of your strength, dangerous charm

semplicemente

I’ve never dreamed so much

of a happy future, two strangers

who share nothing, just surprise

at the unthinkable bliss of chance

molto scherzando

I’ve never loved so much  

(c) 2011 by Maja Trochimczyk

For lovers of love's wisdom in poetry, Maja Trochimczyk's Miriam's Iris, or Angels in a Garden, describes a life trajectory from homesickness, through romance, grief, and reconciliation with the most beautiful of loves, found only with the Angel called Sophia, the Divine Wisdom. This book, too, found its admirers among reviewers. 

Paperback Edition: ISBN 978-0-578-00166-1
Preview on Google Books: Miriam Preview
Hardcover with Color Photos: ISBN 978-0-9819693-2-9 

EBook (PDF) from lulu.com: ISBN 978-0-9819693-2-9

"Rarely does one find a book of poetry which holds together as well as Miriam's Iris. Although presented as a collection of individual poems, it reads like it was composed as a whole, as a single poem of multiple parts. . .Miriam's Iris is a strong demonstration of how poetry can evoke emotion without getting bogged down in the details of one's affairs. Along the way it provides some wisdom about finding one's place, accepting what one is given." (G. Murray Thomas in Poetix.net, Feburary 2010)

Amor 6 

 the more I love

 the more dangerous 

life becomes 

in its graphic beauty 

carved with a dagger 

stolen from time 

 the blade cuts 

old wounds open 

 it slides on the skin 

of the moment 

 pierced by knowing

 © 2006 by Maja Trochimczyk

For lovers of life itself, and the miracle of living on our planet, surrounded by the loved ones that we sometimes appreciate only if we are truly lost, Ed Rosenthal's The Desert Hat will be a delight, with its incredible story of a true loss - wandering through the Mojave Desert for six days, he wrote love messages for his wife and daughter on his hat. He somehow had a pencil with him, and not a piece of paper or a notebook. The hat is destined for a museum of human spirit. The book - for your shelf or some reading device.

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

eBook for iTunes or Nook, $10.00: ISBN 978-0-9819693-9-8

"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

If all this is not enough, readers may found lots of love poems, and roses, at the following issues of blogs.

POETRY LAURELS

Maja Trochimczyk blog, first documenting her tenure as Poet-Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga, and later whatever catches her poetic fancy, including a series of post on love, the Valentine's Day, and roses.

poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2013/09/rose-poems-from-shadows-leaves-roses.html

http://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2013/06/on-irony-and-love-songs-with-grapefruit.html

http://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-history-of-love-and-roses.html

http://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2011/05/roses-and-roses-without-end.html

http://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2011/02/timeless-after-desire-love-on.html

http://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2011/02/what-is-love-valentines-day-reflections.html

CHOPIN WITH CHERRIES

Stories of Chopin's love letters, his interests in roses, violets, his failed love affairs and sublime music. Illustrations include Redoute's engravings of roses.

http://chopinwithcherries.blogspot.com/2014/02/chopins-roses-and-violets-and-spring.html

http://chopinwithcherries.blogspot.com/2013/02/on-chopins-roses-for-valentines-day.html

http://chopinwithcherries.blogspot.com/2012/02/chopins-valentines-and-his-letters.html

Susan Dobay Presents the Franz Liszt Documentary in her Gallery in Monrovia, February 9 at 3:00 pm

Moonrise Press and the Scenic Drive Gallery 

Present

 LISZT’S DANCE WITH THE DEVIL 

A documentary film by Ophra Yerushalmi 

Free Screening of a 60-min. film will take place on Sunday, February 9, 2014 at 3 p.m.

at the Scenic Drive Gallery, 125 Scenic Drive, Monrovia, CA 91016, tel. 626-359-3946.

In order to attract attention to this wonderful event, the hostess, Hungarian-American artist Susan Dobay created a series of digital collages interpreting Liszt's piano music. She started with a dark one, appropriate for the film's title - dance with the devil.

Then she moved on to the more positive pink dove flying off the keyboard (above), and finally, found the melancholy face in a tranquil natural setting. 

All the images are made using Dobay's technique of "digital image integration" and all have something new to show and tell us. Let's watch the Liszt's documentary and be inspired by his art and Ophra Yerushalmi's effort to bring him and his ideas to life. 

www.scenicdrivegallery.com

Franz Liszt Documentary Film Screening in Monrovia on February 9, 2014

Moonrise Press and the Scenic Drive Gallery 

Present

 LISZT’S DANCE WITH THE DEVIL 

A documentary film by Ophra Yerushalmi 

Free Screening of a 60-min. film will take place on Sunday, February 9, 2014 at 3 p.m.

at the Scenic Drive Gallery, 125 Scenic Drive, Monrovia, CA 91016, tel. 626-359-3946 

RSVP to info@moonrisepress.com by February 1, 2014.

www.scenicdrivegallery.com

This documentary focuses on the inner duel between the virtuoso and the composer, the seduction of glamor and the quest for spirituality that took place throughout Franz Liszt's life. Featuring interviews and performances with musical and literary luminaries, this is a film filled with revelations about the quintessential romantic artist who is also at the forefront of modernity. Selected for the 2011 celebrations and festivals in Paris, Budapest, Rome, Utrecht, Bologna and New York, Liszt's Dance with the Devil has since also been screened in Ottawa, Baltimore, Oakland, The Harwood Museum, Taos and Tel-Aviv, Israel.

Ophra Yerushalmi is a graduate of the Jerusalem Academy of Music, later a scholarship student of Claudio Arrau and composer Stefan Wolpe. She has performed throughout four continents, and premiered works of Israeli composers Paul Ben-Haim, Mordecai Seter and Joseph Tal. Her previous documentary film was dedicated to the presence of Fryderyk Chopin in contemporary culture, Chopin’s Afterlife. New York audiences have heard her at the 92nd Street "Y", Merkin Hall, The Miller Theatre, Symphony Space, Lincoln Center, and The Music Festival of the Hamptons directed by Lukas Foss, who also participated in Chopin’s Afterlife. Her essay, “Benediction to Liszt in his Solitude” was published by Pendragon Press in Liszt: A Chorus of Voices. In 2013, Ms. Yerushalmi has received “An Artist-in-Residence” fellowship for three months by the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, New Mexico, to develop her new film-project Preludes.

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

Ed Rosenthal at Beyond Baroque in Venice - November 10, 2013 at 8 p.m.

The first reading from The Desert Hat by Ed Rosenthal will take place at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center in Venice on Sunday, November 10, at 8 p.m.  Beyond Baroque is located on 681 Venice Blvd. in Venice, CA, next to a fire station, with limited street parking. Arrive early to find a spot!

Below is an excerpt from Beyond Baroque's website: www.beyondbaroque.org or
https://www.facebook.com/BBLitArts

DESERT HAT: SURVIVAL POEMS PUBLICATION READING

Lost in a hot, dry, rugged canyon in Joshua Tree National Park for 6 days, with no water and no food, ED ROSENTHAL, a prominent real estate broker and experienced hiker from Culver City, took out a pen and started to write on his hiking hat. Hosted by Ruth Nolan BB tickets: $10, students/seniors $6, BB members - free. Book signing.

The book is now available from Moonrise Press in paperback and eBook formats:

http://moonrisepress.com/desert.html

• Paperback edition,  $15.00 (+S&H), 74 pp.: 
•  ISBN 978-0-9819693-7-4
• eBook for iTunes or Nook, $10.00:
• ISBN 978-0-9819693-9-8

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

News about The Desert Hat by Ed Rosenthal

Forthcoming in October 2013 is the wonderful new book by Ed Rosenthal, The Desert Hat. In the words found on the Inlandia Institute's blog, and written by Ruth Nolan, Professor at College of the Desert, and California desert expert, poet, writer, and lover:

 "The story of Rosenthal’s disappearance, and survival, after six days alone in the desert’s harsh September climate was a story a story that riveted Southern California’s attention – as well as the rest of the nation’s – in headlining newspaper and news stories. Like so many others, I anxiously followed the story of his disappearance and the efforts of searchers to find him before it was too late. In addition, as a lifelong, avid back-country Mojave Desert hiker and resident, I was all too aware of the many dangers he faced, especially from exposure and heat. I remember feeling incredibly relieved, and to be honest, surprised, that he had been found alive.

 The story of how Rosenthal was lost, and found, in critical condition but alive, and soon on his way towards making a full recovery, is also a cathartic and transformational one, as rendered here in Desert Hat: Survival Poems in his own words. “The least I could do, after an experience like this, is write a decent book of poems,” he says. Desert Hat: Survival Poems is a unique desert book, even in a body of desert literature filled with life and death stories of those who have faced the southwestern desert’s hostilities.

Stories of getting lost, and barely surviving, are staples of the literature of this remotest and most little known of landscapes. For example, William Lewis Manly’s famous book Death Valley in ’49, which depicts the near-death experience of a party of pioneers who took a wrong turn and barely survived their desert crossing, to the heartbreaking short chapter in Edward Abbey’s celebrated memoir Desert Solitaire, which provides an intimate portrayal of the author’s near-death experience after barely escaping a slot canyon he got trapped in after taking a wrong turn while on a solitary hike.

 Like these other desert books, Rosenthal’s poetry collection is an entry into another world, into a heightened world of self-reflection, of profound revelations, and spiritual enlightenment; his Mojave is a desert world personified and transformed into a universal place. Of the canyon walls he found himself surrounded by, he writes, “Those were friends/Stuck in quartz embraces/Veins of orange eyes smiled.” As he wandered and searched for his car, the desert landscape transformed into a place most extraordinary, leaving an indelible impression, as rendered in another poem: “Ten miles after that turn/The sky was making magic./Turning limbs to ghostly signs/Making a prickly pear look/Like a red shirted hiker.

 These poems are the reader’s entry into the “other world” the author himself entered from the moment on a September day when he realized he was lost. In these highly imagistic poems, we are lead along on this most unusual of journeys, which is both a literal and mythopoetic one that can only be rendered by the Mojave’s mystical and labyrinthine landscape and through Rosenthal’s growing self-awareness and deepening connections with the intimacies of the desert’s private nuances, as seen through his eyes and experienced in his imagination during the time he was lost."

Ed Rosenthal (a couple of years earlier)

 Reprinted from Inlandia Institute's blog: http://localauthors.pe.com/uncategorized/the-desert-hat-survival-poems-a-true-story-of-being-lost-and-found-in-joshua-tree/

The foreward to Ed Rosenthal's new book of poetry inspired by his misadventure in the Mojave Desert, was written by Ruth Nolan, Professor of English @ College of the Desert, California desert poet, writer, editor, conservationist & scholar. Ruth is the editor of No Place for a Puritan: the literature of CA's deserts (Heyday 2009), a critically acclaimed anthology. She is also an active member of desert conservation groups, and the literary force in the landscape of the desert. Her writings are on her blog, http://ruthnolan.blogspot.com