The Witching Hour Poetry Gathering by Konrad Tademar Wilk Held on 24 October 2026 in Pasadena

The 36th Annual Witching Hour Poetry Gathering will take place this year at the home of artist Monique Lehman and her husband aerospace engineer and manager David Lehman on Saturday 24 October 2026 at 6 pm.  Please RSVP to maja.trochimczyk@gmail.com if you would like to attend.

Konrad Tademar Wilk wrote: The 36th Annual Witching Hour Poetry Gathering is suddenly upon us. I would like to invite you to spend the evening with me and a few of my close friends at the home of David and Monique Lehman in Pasadena. [...]  Bring food if you wish, though food will be provided. Bring books, though books will be in abundance, bring loose leaf pages of text. But most importantly bring your heart and soul. For one night turn off your cell phone, tune out the world; let it be poetry not prose, for one night of the year, let it be verse and verse alone to occupy your mind and to keep you enthralled. Let the world take care of itself." 

The first Witching Hour Poetry Gathering took place in 1991 in South Central Los Angeles, the next two decades were held in Hollywood, and the last few events moved around to Los Feliz, Sylmar, Glendale, Sunland, Long Beach and finally Pasadena. The reading will include readings of poems in English, Polish, Spanish and other languages, if the poets wish to do so.  Hot dinner refreshments will be provided. 

Monique Chmielewski Lehman who will host the event is a well know fiber artist. She will speak about her artwork and about her father Papcio Chmiel, a famous graphic artist from Poland. 

During the event, Konrad Tademar Wilk will present his new poetry book "Trafficking in Time - 168 Sonnets" published by Moonrise Press in 2025, too late for the previous Witching Hour - that presented Moonrise Press's earlier publication, "Alchemy of Words" by Ella Czajkowska.

SONNETS FROM TRAFFICKING IN TIME 

UUR II

Uncomfortable dimensions* interlaced with mood

Melancholy dangling on a subtle shoestring

Lines of grain filed down flat to five minutes, crude—

— words put to simple catchy music, that idiots sing

With bitter taste of coffee filled with cyanide**

A world-wide war within a beer bottle bravely drunk

Where is the modern poet to go to hide?

Smell of Los Angeles a few whiffs from a skunk

Traffic in Time, capturing dreams, caution: wet floor

No more space left for flowers and trees, but who cares

All you’ve to do is snap your fingers for a whore

And a Country Western song to hop, skip in pairs

My cell phone battery is dead, thanks’ be to see

Blesséd silence of urban decaying debris.

                                                                Konrad Tademar Wilk, March 6, 2013

NOTES: 

* In supersymmetry (a theoretical framework of physics) eleven-dimensional gravity allows for the highest number of dimensions to explain reality. 

** A poetic concatenation of two Agatha Christie (1890-1976) plot points from her spy-thriller play Black Coffee (1930) & her detective novel Sparkling Cyanide (1945). 

UUR CLVIII

Parallel lines intersecting at vanishing—

—point of infinity constraining the bitter—

—noise of the hurt hummingbird as it fails to sing

Look to the moon, even there mankind leaves litter

Girard Desargues walks lightly… now untouching—

—plane of non-symmetric temporal vibration

A conflation of science and magic, matching—

—socks and shoes on the harsh pavement of elation

Here Terminus meets Thanatos with steel black wings

Sword drawn into perspective central axis line

Behold the moment, a pause to wait if it stings

Love within a mathematical cryptic sign

The matrix of oblivion lies in reach of all 

Torture, while we wait for the other shoe to fall.

Konrad Tademar Wilk, September 13, 2013 – the Ides of September on Friday the 13th

Wilk - Trafficking in Time - Moonrise Press

ISBN 978-1-945938-81-8 paperback, 226 pages, $30.00

ISBN 978-1-945938-82-5 hardcover, 226 pages, $48.00

"Trafficking in TIme - 168 Sonnets" by K. Tademar Wilk Nominations for 2025 Pushcart Prize

California State Poetry Society: Poetry Letter No. 1, Spring 2024, Part 2 - Sonnets by Konrad Tademar & Three Book Reviews (Ewa Lipska, Judie Rae, & Millicent Borges Accardi)

TRAFFICKING IN TIME - 168 SONNETS

Konrad Tademar Wilk’s 168 sonnets, written in a period of seven months in 2013, from 1 March to 30 September, are all entitled UUR with the appropriate Roman number. “UUR” means “hour” in Dutch and there are 168 hours in a week. The poems contain a plethora of quotations and references making their comprehension difficult for the uninformed. To clarify the complex web of allusions and multilingual citations, they are annotated with translations from Polish, Latin, French, German, Russian, Sanskrit, and other languages, as well as explanations about concepts referred to in the texts. While written in response to events of their time, and firmly rooted in the year 2013, it might be said that these sonnets “traffic in time” by transcending time and bridging together worlds of myth, science, linguistics, psychology, spirituality and religion. Six sonnets from the book were nominated for the Pushcart Prize for 2025. 

~ Maja Trochimczyk, Ph.D. CSPS President

Maja Trochimczyk, Konrad Tademar Wilk, and Ambika Talwar

celebrate 250th Anniversary of American Independence, 4th of July Parade 2026, Sunland.

In honor of the 250th Anniversary of the U.S. poets will present verse dedicated to this occasion. But there will be plenty about the End of Time

Elijah's End


And the curtains of fire opened. 
And God walks through.
And I fall on my knees
Struck down by the might
Of his presence.

And the ground under my feet
Roars and trembles.
And God is with me.

In awe, I do not dare to look
Into the laughing beauty of his eyes.
And the gale changes into a breeze.
And God speaks in a whisper,
Sweetly announcing
The end of the world as it was.

And the sun stops in its tracks.
And the world explodes.
Filled with love, so much love,
It could not bear existing
For one more minute.

— now it ends --
— now it blossoms --
— now it grows again --

(C) by Maja Trochimczyk. Published in Into Light,

http://www.moonrisepress.com/into-light-by-maja-trochimczyk.html

Easter Apocalypsis

—After "The Discovery of Heaven" by Harry Mulisch


It is coming. The angels know.
They dwell in their Piranesi castles,
twisted spaces where outside
is inside. They are not indifferent.
Not too smart for their own good.
Not cruel. They don't tell us.

The end is coming, it is near.
Not death, mind you, not that
ugly spinster without its twin.
No. The end of the end. Finis.
The satin fabric of a wedding dress
trails behind the veiled beauty
as she glides towards her beloved.

The river's end tastes of salt
in its own mouth, opened widely
into the waves of the ocean.
Nothing we can do will stop it.
Just stretch your fingers,
let the water cool your skin.

Why resist? Heraclitus
dipped his toes in this river.
Shape-note singers praised it.
Saints dove in and swam around,
luxuriating in incandescent glories
that passed us by.

The end is coming, flowing
swiftly down the slopes.
Let's sit on the porch, doze off
in honeyed sunlight,
before it, too, disappears,
transfigured.

Let us believe there will be
light enough inside us
—that kindling of kindness,
a half-forgotten smile—
to keep us afloat in the final flood
coming, coming to erase the world
and remake it, anew,

bejeweled.


(C) By Maja Trochimczyk, published in The Scream Online http://www.thescreamonline.com/poetry/poetry7-4/trochimczyk.html

PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT

The event started when attendees reached 13, described as "the witches' coven" by Konrad Tademar Wilk who proceeded to narrate anecdotes from 36 years of the Witching Hour Poetry Gathering. He presented poems from his recent book of 168 sonnets, "Trafficking in Time" - and a long narrative poem about a Pole walking through Lviv after the city was taken over by Soviet Union and placed in the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. The latter verse was read in Polish and English. He also read poems from his four-volume novel Prometheus.  As the second featured poet, Toti O'Brien - artist, poet, writer, dancer, singer and accordion player - read for of her dramatic and surreal poems from a recent book and a manuscript in preparation for publication. 

Then Maja Trochimczyk honored the memory of two poets who died in 2025 and who made an impact on her life as the Sixth Poet Laureate of Sunland Tujunga. Marlene Hitt's "Yellow Tree Alone" was her last book published by Moonrise Press. 

Yellow Tree Alone

Yellow tree

Stands glowing

In sideways light

Regal and glorious

Her beauty

Her message

For life’s meaning

Wasted

With no one

To see that golden

Radiance

She sings

To no one

Who’d hear her

But the Sun, Ra

The Giver of Gold

Moonrise Press: Marlene Hitt's Second Poetry Book, "Yellow Tree Alone. Selected Poems" (March 2023) 

Maja read two short poems from the book, including a farewell to life and the title poem reproduced above... The role of Margaret Saine in Maja's creative life was also major: she introduced Maja to California State Poetry Society, included first of her poems in the California Quarterly and then paved her way to the role of President of CSPS. Maja published two books of Margaret, including "Garden of the Earth" with inspired poems about nature, philosophy, and belonging. 

Moonrise Press: Announcing New Poetry Volume by Margaret Saine, Gardens of the Earth: According to Nature

Moonrise Press books presented at the Witching Hour Poetry Gathering.

Maja Trochimczyk also read an in-memoriam poem dedicated to the Persian women murdered during Iranian protests of 2026, "On Seeing Hair on X.com" that was published in California Quarterly 52 no. 3, 2026.  At the end Maja read a poem about Polish national trauma in Polish and English. It is published in "The Rainy Bread"

 ON SEEING HAIR ON X.COM

                  ~ for thousands of brave Persian women of 2026

 

I saw braids on the table,

dozens of them, laid out flat

side by side – trophies collected

after women were shot

in the streets of Iran,

raped in prisons,

murdered by jihadis.

        straight long black hair

        curly permed locks of hair

        bleached blond pretty hair

        shining smooth ebony hair

Each bunch tied with

a piece of string,

ready for sale, for a killing profit.

Dozens of braids laid flat

on the table.

Sharia’s spoils.

Men who cut the hair –

nowhere to be seen.

                                    Maja Trochimczyk, Los Angeles, California

Other readers are described in a report by Konrad Tademar Wilk cited below. Special thanks to Monique and David Lehman for letting the group use their home. 

Poets and readers at the event

Konrad Wilk with Maja Trochimczyk presenting "Trafficking in Time"

Konrad Wilk reads from his book "Prometheus" 

Toti O'Brien presents her poetry

Liliana Tademar reads Shakespeare and Halina Birenbaum

David Rogers recites his poem.

Konrad Wilk with Monique Lehman, whose home served as the site for this event,

 that was not cancelled despite her recent surgery.

David Lehman with Konrad Wilk in American cowboy hats.

Konrad Tademar Wilk wrote: 

"The 36th Witching Hour Poetry Gathering was a thrilling success. Maja Trochimczyk of Moonrise Press, presented me with my published book. Thank you very much Maja, you made my day. I wrote "Trafficking in Time" 13 years ago, by hand over 7 months. It is sobering to see it in print, it is a deeply personal work and I wouldn't have shared it if not for Maja's encouraging push. A special thank you to Gwendolyn Taunton for her endorsement.  We had a really great Gathering; we were a full Coven for the actual reading... with the hosts and additional guests we hit a high mark. I somehow sold three books without realizing it. We had 4 poets: Maja, Toti O'Brien, Dave Rodgers and myself; and 6 readers.  And we had excellent food. I want to personally thank Monique Lehman and David Lehman for the use of their magnificent home for the event. Reading poetry while surrounded by Monique's art was inspirational. Thank you Tomasz Seyberth for reading my poem for the 25th anniversary of 9/11. A quick shout out to my mom Liliana Tademar who read from Leonard Cohen, from Shakespeare in both Polish and English and a particularly moving poem by the poet Halina Birenbaum."

ABOUT MONIQUE CHMIELEWSKI LEHMAN

Lehman weaves a portrait of her father comic-book creater Mr. Chmielewski

A native of Warsaw, Poland and a graduate of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, Monique Lehman is an accomplished and original tapestry artist whose work may be found in museum collections around the world (the Vatican, Long Beach Museum of Art, Central Museum of Textiles in Lodz, Poland and the Space Museum in Cape Canaveral, FL), as well as in many American public buildings, city halls, churches, hospitals and synagogues. Her creative output continues the centuries of development of unique fiber art tradition, previously unknown in America and created exclusively by Polish artists.  

Lehman in China with a poster based on her self-portrait tapestry

Monique Chmielewski came from Poland to USA in 1978 invited by an American artist to teach at her studio in California. When the Pope John Paul II visited Chicago, Monique greeted him by presenting his portrait she wove as a 6’ x 4’ tapestry. Since the American TV showed this event on the news, the public learned about the Polish tapestry school.

Working on a tapestry at home

Monique was invited to lecture about art and soon Polish tapestries became desirable objects for American collectors. Ms. Lehman, a member of Zwiazek Polskich Artystow Plastykow, shares her time between exhibiting, working on large commissions, and organizing art shows for artists from China in Poland and Polish artists in American and China museums. She is a real ambassador of Polish Fiber Art. Her knowledge of languages and cultures help her to promote Polish art in Asia and the Americas. This year she was invited as a special guest to World Textile Art in Uruguay and Biennale of Art in Karachi, Pakistan.

Monique’s accomplishment is bringing European visual criteria to America and China, as well as sharing Polish culture. Her monumental tapestries such as the parochet for Temple Beth El, La Jolla, CA, or the Portrait of St. Francis, typically take several years to complete. The large-scale works created on commission are just one side of her creative talent. She also developed an original style of abstract tapestries, that are three dimensional, may change shapes, and have a rich palette of colors and textures to express their themes.  

With large tapestry at Pasadena City College

Since 2010, she participated in 29 prominent international exhibitions on four continents (Asia, North and South America and Europe), including exhibitions held in: Ottawa and Vancouver, Canada; Oaxaca, Mexico; Beijing and other cities in China; the Lodz Triennale, and many other exhibitions in Poland (Bytom, Czestochowa, Gdynia and so forth), as well as Long Beach, Palos Verdes, Ontario, and Pasadena in California. She was recently invited to show her fiber art as a solo artist in Montevideo, Uruguay, during the WTA Conference in October 2017, and will hold a Retrospective Exhibition in the Museum of Textiles in Beijing, China, in the following year. 

Lehman with her Rain Forest tapestry

She promotes tapestry art by organizing international shows in Europe, China and the U.S. One of her internationally exhibited projects with contributions by 100 artists from 20 countries was the Memorial Tapestry commemorating the victims of 9/11. Monique’s goal was to promote polish art not only in the USA but internationally. The artist participated in many Contemporary International Fiber Art Exhibitions and served as a jury member since 2006. 

For her achievements in the field of fiber arts, Monique Lehman received an honorary degree of Professor from Zibo Vocational Institute, in the city of Zibo, Shandong Province, China. She included many Polish artists in the largest Fiber Art show in Asia,“From Lausanne to Beijing.” She is a judge of this show and invited eminent Polish professors to join her in selecting the work for display. 

Modeling Wearable Art on the Beach