Maja Trochimczyk dedicates this collection of poems, “Bright Skies,” to her children and grand-children, asking them to read and enjoy her verse “when they grow up.” The volume features 85 poems written in 2009-2022 and organized into five sections – Spring, Summer, Babie Lato, Autumn and Winter. The seasons of poetry include reflections on nature, beauty, love, life, and spirituality. The focus is on positive emotions, learning to be calm and content, full of compassion and wisdom. It is a life-long quest, and these poems are an invitation.
Preface
This collection of poems is inspired by the births of my two granddaughters, Aurelia, born on 12 September 2021 and Juniper, born on 16 September 2021. I planned to write a book of poems for each girl, just as I did for my grandson, Adam, born on 16 September 2016. The poetry book dedicated to him, entitled I Give You the World, contains one long poem describing things that I love and cherish in this life, illustrated with photos of my family, travels, and gardens. An abridged version without family pictures appeared on my blog; this version is further shortened here. The purpose of the book for Adam was to introduce the Polish-born boy to his American & Canadian family and their lives. He now lives in the U.S. and is able to share these delights in-person.
Since Adam got “the whole world” as his birthday present, what can I give to his five-years-younger sister, Aurelia, and his cousin, Juniper? I found 85 poems and over 160 photographs that I decided to share with them, in a book to be read when they grow up. This is not a children’s book. With gratitude, I described delights that I found in my garden and home, during walks, adventures, and travels. I wrote about inspirational moments and discoveries, summarizing my life’s wisdom at 64. This volume of “positive poetry” contains verse originally written in 2009-2022 and is a companion volume to Into Light: Poems and Incantations (2016). It is a necklace of love and blessings; each bead – a poem.
I hope that the readers attracted to the themes of seeking light and enjoying life in the garden will find here something to enjoy, something to think about, and something to do in their own lives. After all, we live in the Garden of Eden and can make this Earth a Paradise, if we only want to. Enjoy!
Maja Trochimczyk
Los Angeles, 1 June 2022
Table of Contents
Table of Contents ≈ v
Preface ≈ viii
Prior Publication Credits ≈ ix
Spring ~Wiosna ≈ 3
1. A Springtime Revelation ≈ 4
2. Only in California ≈ 5
3. The Day of a Plum Tree ≈ 7
4. Outside my Window ≈ 9
5. Spring Cleaning ≈ 11
6. An Artichoke of a Poem ≈ 13
7. On Being Green in Vincent’s Garden ≈ 15
8. Da Capo al Fine ≈ 17
9. A Ballad of a New Heart ≈ 19
10. An Invitation to the Dance ≈ 21
11. A Ballad of Angels ≈ 23
12. Practical Advice for a Frazzled Passer-by ≈ 25
13. Skylark’s Lesson ≈ 27
14. Oh, The Art of Looking ≈ 29
15. On Being a Bird ≈ 31
16. the doves of love ≈ 32
17. A Mystery Solved ≈ 33
18. Double Delight ≈ 35
19. Diamond Days in Crystal Gardens ≈ 36
20. This Afternoon ≈ 39
21. From Minium Chronicles ≈ 40
22. The Golden Hour ≈ 42
Summer ~Lato ≈ 43
1. June in Gold and Blue ≈ 44
2. The Song of the Summer ≈ 46
3. A Tale of a Hare ≈ 48
4. A Drink of Water ≈ 50
5. Mason Bees ≈ 51
6. The Golden Time of Honey ≈ 53
7. Dreaming Bees ≈ 55
8. A Pear in a Tree ≈ 56
9. A Day Trip to Venice, California ≈ 57
10. Carving Sand ≈ 59
11. A Champagne Sunday ≈ 61
12. Aquamarine ≈ 63
13. The Ocean of Jade ≈ 65
14. The 23rd of July ≈ 67
15. Tatarak ≈ 69
16. Flying Kites ≈ 71
17. “Let me go!” ≈ 73
18. Soap Bubbles ≈ 74
19. High Noon ≈ 75
20. Matka Boska Zielna ≈ 76
21. In Morning Light ≈ 78
Babie Lato ≈ 81
1. On Thursday Afternoon ≈ 82
2. Sapphire ≈ 84
3. Amber ≈ 85
4. A Revelation after Il Paradiso ≈ 86
5. Up, Up, Up ≈ 88
6. From Yesterday’s Dream ≈ 89
7. Sunfire Foxes ≈ 91
8. Sweet Nothings ≈ 92
9. The Year of Crystal Fire ≈ 94
10. Just to Make It Clear ≈ 96
11. A Chromosome Ballad ≈ 97
12. Twin Flame Promise ≈ 98
13. Diamonds ≈ 100
Autumn ~ Jesien ≈ 101
1. On Cosmic Breath ≈ 102
2. Landscapes: A Guidebook ≈ 103
3. A Cosmic Rainbow ≈ 106
4. Today – For Us ≈ 110
5. I Give You the World ≈ 112
6. A Golden Poem for a Girl of Gold ≈ 122
7. Gold Wishes ≈ 124
8. Juniper ≈ 127
9. The Fierce Explorer ≈ 128
10. The Aril ≈ 130
11. Fall Yucca ≈ 132
12. This Evening ≈ 135
13. Diamond Rain ≈ 136
Winter ~ Zima ≈ 139
1. California Winter ≈ 140
2. Standing in a Pool of Silver ≈ 141
3. The Antidote ≈ 142
4. A Music Box Christmas ≈ 144
5. Rules for Happy, Holy Days ≈ 146
6. A Ballad from the Field of Glory ≈ 147
7. A Jewel Box Sunrise ≈ 150
8. Winter Solstice ≈ 152
9. The Star of Christmas, the Way of Light ≈ 154
10. Gifts ≈ 156
11. New Year’s Day in the Wash ≈ 158
12. Your Rainbow ≈ 160
13. Imagine, a Poem of Light ≈ 161
14. A Declaration ≈ 162
15. Arbor Cosmica ≈ 164
16. Hymn of Light ≈ 166
Coda – Recipes for Poems ≈ 168
Spring – Mazurkas ≈ 168
Summer – Pickled Pears and Plums ≈ 169
Babie Lato – Szarlotka ≈ 170
Autumn – Bigos and Salads ≈ 171
Winter – Barszcz, Kompot and Kutia ≈ 172
About the Author ≈ 173
SPRING - WIOSNA
Outside my Window
A round spot of gold light
appears on the slope of my California hills
green in the spring, shadowed by rainclouds.
Suddenly, an epiphany of light, a hole in the sky
appears among thickening shadows, dusk
approaching soon, much too soon.
The bright circle stretches into
an arrow, points west, along the ridge
and the gully. The arrow of light, my arrow
tells me to go, do, act, lead and follow.
Be the light, bring the light. Enlighten.
Before I can even reach for pen and paper
to write down this command, this call to action,
it is gone. All is shadow now. Murky darkness.
Yet the memory of cloud epiphany lingers,
etched onto my retina. This spot of light,
this arrow will always be with me —
every day, each morning I will turn the circle
of contemplation into the arrow of action,
the dawn star into a comet, inexorably
reaching its end.
Is it not the story of my life?
This spot of light on a mountain meadow
after one winter storm, before another?
I catch it, hold it, and keep it safe
among my treasures. Things not to be
discarded. Unforgettable thoughts.
Another pearl for my precious necklace
woven from brilliant moments —
jewels of a well-lived life.
SUMMER - LATO
Matka Boska Zielna
~ for Mother of God of the Herbs (August 15)
Look at the greening hill slopes charred by last year’s wildfire—
that’s magic. Look at the mountain sunflower that grew
at the edge of the asphalt on Oro Vista road, it already blooms
out of nowhere—that’s magic, too. The postcard-size garden
by the old, wooden house, a shack, really—fills with flowers
every spring. Fruit appears on orange trees after bees collect pollen.
The scent of sweetness, the cheerful noise of bee wings—
is it not far more miraculous, a thousand, a million times
more delightful than the 100 floors of steel-metal-glass
of skyscrapers proudly pointing at the sky? Incomparable
with a patch of weeds, nature’s miracles of renewal.
How proud we are of our empty metallic constructions
that will rust in the jungle, abandoned, like stone pyramids
of the Mayas, shrouded by vibrant green of leaves and
branches. Thousands of years of human fame obliterated
by the steady, living, fertile abundance, the overflowing
force of life, of matter, our Mother.
Roots, shoots and tendrils spread out, germinate,
flow through the soil in search of water, nutrients,
life, more life, ever growing, ever richer, dancing,
singing the abundance of being—the song of creation
we are— we are —we are—we are all —
we are one—one—one—
First published in Quill and Parchment, May 2022
BABIE LATO
Diamonds
There is Universe within my heart
A myriad galaxies dance in my mind
I’m a microcosm of Divine design
In a seashell there is an ocean
In dark coal mine white diamonds grow
In your eyes I find ageless wisdom
The One Love that sustains us all
In your guilt I see my darkness
In your beauty—radiance and light
In your voice—the calling, the calling
Mountain air on a spring morning
Sparkling diamonds, radiant and pure—
For all forevers you enfold me in Love
First published in Rose Always, rev. ed. 2020
The Aril
“Aril” is the word for me.
Not “arid”—as in the desert of wasted years, hours.
Not “arduous” —as in working so hard every day
to make ends meet. These ends, they never meet, anyway.
Just aril. As in my garden at noon. As in ruby-bright
pomegranate shining in full sunlight. A jewel bowl
of arils I pick from exploded fruit to freeze for winter.
A handful of overripe arils that taste rejuvenating,
like fine wine. Tartly-sweet juice stains my fingers
burgundy-red—or should I say, aril-red?
Oh, the delight of untold riches!
You watch me blissfully chew the seeds
and say in disbelief: “You eat them whole? Really?
When I was a boy, my brother told me that
trees would grow out of my ears if I swallowed
pomegranate seed—huge trees would grow
and grow and grow and grow…”
We laugh at the vision of these arid, forgotten years.
It was an arduous journey that took us through
the wilderness to this vivid moment of sharing
this magic, life-giving nectar of arils,
ruby-red arils.
Arbor Cosmica
~ for my children
No fear, no hate, not even a mild dislike*—
we leave our heavy burdens, shards of memories
broken, all too broken, at the bottom of crystal stairs
beneath clouds of white camellias, petals swirling
through air like the snow of forgetfulness
Perfect symmetry of blossoms
points the way—up, up, always up
rainbow crystal stairs, revealed
one by one as we ascend—inwards,
outwards—dancing spirals of our DNA
We get to know this place—these depths,
these heights—for once, for all lifetimes
With each step, pure notes resonate
and expand into clear, spacious chords—
the music of the spheres rings out, wave by wave
expanding from our open hearts
Each chord—harmonious, different—
each melody in this vast symphony
sweetly twines around another, and another
until all are One Song, One Wisdom—
of stem and flower, of leaf and root
in this Cosmic Tree of humanity
Arbor Cosmica—
We have been here
all along without knowing
First published in the California Quarterly 46:4, 2019
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Maja Trochimczyk, PhD, is a Polish American poet, music historian, photographer, and non-profit director. She is the author/editor of eight books on music and Polish culture in Polish and English, as well as five poetry volumes and four anthologies, most recently We Are Here: Village Poets Anthology (co-edited with Marlene Hitt, 2020). A former Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga, she is the founder of Moonrise Press, President of the California State Poetry Society, Managing Editor of the California Quarterly and Poetry Letter published by the CSPS, and President of the Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club, promoting Polish culture in California. Hundreds of her poems, articles and book chapters appeared in English, Polish, and in a variety of translations. She presented her research at over 90 international conferences and received many awards from Polish, Canadian and American institutions. Among other honors, she is the winner of the Creative Arts Prize from the Polish American Historical Association (2016) for her two books about Polish civilian experience during WW II and its aftermath, Slicing the Bread and The Rainy Bread. Since 2010, she has maintained a series of blogs on poetry, Polish history and culture, with a total readership of over 970,000 visitors: moonrisepress.com; californiastatepoetrysociety.com; poetrylaurels.blogspot.com; chopinwithcherries.blogspot.com, etc.
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