Poetry Laurels: Ambika Talwar

Showing posts with label Ambika Talwar. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 6, 2022

12 Poets in "Crystal Fire. Poems of Joy and Wisdom" edited by Maja Trochimczyk

Crystal Fire. Poems of Joy & Wisdom

ISBN 978-1-945938-57-3 (color hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-945938-58-0 (color paperback)

ISBN 978-1-945938-59-7 (eBook)

https://moonrisepress.com/crystal-fire-anthology.html

It has been a real pleasure and a joy to gather poems, edit the anthology, and organize events to promote this collection of positive poetry in our chaotic times. Illustrated with paintings by Ambika Talwar, the “Crystal Fire” anthology gathers poems of joy and wisdom by 12 poets, 8 women and 4 men: Elżbieta Czajkowska, Joe DeCenzo, Mary Elliott, Jeff Graham, Marlene Hitt, Frederick Livingston, Alice Pero, Allegra Silberstein, Jane Stuart, Ambika Talwar, Bory Thach, and Maja Trochimczyk.

The poets span all ages and diverse life experiences. They include émigrés from Poland, Cambodia, and India, and those born in the U.S. College professors join community poets. Native speakers appear alongside those for whom English is the second, or even the third language. The ”joy and wisdom” they write about are also different, as each poet follows their own path and gathers unique reflections to share with their readers. The spectacular cover art and paintings to start each section are by poet Ambika Talwar, a talented painter and poet.

Mary Elliott, Bory Thach, Marlene Hitt, Alice Pero, Joe DeCenzo, Ambika Talwar and Maja Trochimczyk at the Opening Reception and Reading of the Sky Garden Exhibition, October 16, 2022, Scenic Drive Gallery, Monrovia.

In the Preface, I described the inspiration and philosophy of the book as follows:

"The title of this anthology comes from my poem “The Year of Crystal Fire” written at the end of a very long and convoluted love story that has a lot to do with the ancient Chinese legends of nine-tailed foxes. Initially, the title of this anthology was to be The Year of Crystal Fire, just like the poem, but why limit ourselves to just one year? The phrase of “Crystal Fire” may be seen as the symbol of all humanity, with each person born from the union of man and woman, the male and female DNA strands interlocking in ever new patterns to create human beings. In this phrase, "Crystal" stands for the feminine and “Fire” for the masculine. “Crystal” is peaceful, somewhat static, but well-constructed, stable, and growing slowly into perfection. It is the cosmos of order and being. Remember, only women give birth (though some want to construct artificial wombs and detach humanity from its roots). In contrast, "Fire" is dynamic, sometimes intensely dramatic, always changing, always transforming, constantly in the state of flux. It is the energy of change and growth. It is also destructive, demolishing solid structures of the past to make room for the new. “Fire” means destruction and becoming. It is pure chaos."

"The Universe arises from the dance of these twin forces, like yin and yang, but neither is pure darkness, negative and “evil” and neither is pure light, positive, and “good.” Instead, they are the ageless vortex of cosmic unity and chaos, of creation and destruction. There is no value assigned to this polarity, for such labels are limiting and deceptive. Both aspects are essential, each cannot exist without its twin. Both are good AND evil, both are positive AND negative. ”Good and positive” when coupled with the other. “Evil and negative” when alone. These are the polar opposites of stagnation and decline—or constant movement and the total destruction of all life. The feminine elements of "earth" and "water" endlessly dance with the masculine elements of “air” and “fire.” Do you agree with me?"

My poems are listed and a sample poem is copied below.

Blue Arches by Ambika Talwar, from Crystal Fire anthology.

Maja Trochimczyk ≈ 127
1.      The Year of Crystal Fire  ≈  128
2.      A Black Velvet Butterfly  ≈  129
3.      Repeat After Me  ≈  130
4.      The Infinity Room  ≈  132
5.      Pelicans   ≈  134
6.      Liquid Opal  ≈  135
7.      The School of Birds  ≈  136
8.      Alchemy in the Hills  ≈  137
9.      The Stillness of Trees  ≈  138
10.   Imagine a Star… ≈  139
11.   Arbor Cosmica  ≈  140
12.   Like Grapes on a Vine  ≈  142
13.   A Starchild’s Lesson  ≈  143
14.   Today Is for Us  ≈  144

The Year of Crystal Fire

Soft patter of pink rose petals
falling onto the floor. The scent of French Perfume
in the air. The heartbeat stops. The world ceases its rotations.

I see the light in your eyes shining
through the slit in your motorcycle helmet,
as you pass me on the street. In a millisecond
of recognition you take me in—whole,
serene in turquoise and aqua—then, you look away
far into the past we shared so shamelessly,
beyond measure—
the year of passion
the year of dogs that brought us together
the year of longing
the year of dolphins dancing on salty waves
the year of absence
the year of waiting in darkness
the year of tiger lilies
the year of nine-tailed foxes—
smooth with seduction and delight

Yes, I liked that year the most—
as we grew into our demonic, daimonic selves,
created new galaxies, parallel universes
out of our other-worldly love.

Timelines shift.
The cosmic windows
keep opening and closing.
Soft patter of pink rose petals
on the flying carpet takes me into
            the year of passion
            the year of tiger lilies
            the year of diamond kites
soaring above hilltops
            the year of stardust
            the year of crystal fire

The other poems are listed, along with a copy of the preface on Moonrise Press blog.

https://moonrisepress.blogspot.com/2022/09/moonrise-press-publishes-crystal-fire.html

More poems from the anthology are featured in a post about the exhibition:

https://moonrisepress.blogspot.com/2022/09/moonrise-press-and-scenic-drive-gallery.html

At the opening of the Sky Garden Exhibition with two books and photographs in the background. Scenic Drive Gallery, Monrovia, CA.

Poems from the Crystal Fire anthology and from the Bright Skies collection were presented at two readings at Scenic Drive Gallery in Monrovia, California. The readings were to mark the opening on October 16, 2022 and closing on November 20, 2022 of an exhibit of Ambika Talwar's paintings from Crystal Fire and my photographs from Bright Skies. The exhibition, entitled "Sky Garden" and curated by Susan Dobay, presented just 12 paintings and 12 photographs, but gave rise to a series of events, including two poetry readings from the books. The exhibition was also visited by singer, guitarist and song-writer Piotr Kajetan Matczuk of Poland, who gave there a mini-concert.

https://moonrisepress.blogspot.com/2022/09/moonrise-press-and-scenic-drive-gallery.html

https://moonrisepress.blogspot.com/2022/11/sky-garden-exhibition-closing-on.html

Maja Trochimczyk with Piotr Matczuk at Sky Garden Exhibition, 5 November 2022

Poet Bory Thach, included in the anthology and participating in the readings, shared the following comment about the book and readings: "I really appreciate everything that you do for the arts, especially how you strive to be fair and include everyone through well-deserved recognition. It's great to be surrounded by such positive poets with a wide variety of perspectives and insights that can be shown through their poetry. Being a writer I always try to learn something from every artist that I meet. The best part about our group is that I get to read amazing works by different authors, experience their views as well as fresh images and new ways of looking at the world. As a result, I have the privilege of gaining valuable knowledge and wisdom. All because I encountered so many poetic pieces as your editor. I'm just grateful to be able to take away at least one thing every time I open a book. It is like a step closer to enlightenment!"

Joe DeCenzo, Elzbieta Czajkowska, Susan Dobay, Maja Trochimczyk and Bory Thach at the Closing Reception of the Sky Garden Exhibition, November 20, 2022.

Thursday, May 31, 2018

Grateful Conversations: A Poetry Anthology by Friends

Grateful Conversations: A Poetry Anthology

Edited by Maja Trochimczyk and Kathi Stafford

Paperback, 280 pages, with black and white illustrations

ISBN 978-1-945938-22-1

http://www.moonrisepress.com/grateful-conversations-anthology.html

I am very happy to have completed the bulk of the work on the anthology of poetry by my writing group, Westside Women Writers. Entitled Grateful Conversations: A Poetry Anthology, after a prompt by the founder of our group Millicent Borges Accardi, this 280 page volume was co-edited by Kathi Stafford and published on May 30, 2018.

Grateful Conversations is a portrait of a group of female poets from California, who come together each month to hone their craft and share their verse. Known as Westside Women Writers and active as a group since 2008, they include Millicent Borges Accardi, Madeleine S. Butcher, Georgia Jones Davis, Lois P. Jones, Susan Rogers, Kathi Stafford, Sonya Sabanac, Ambika Talwar and myself.

In the words of the WWW founder, Millicent Borges Accardi, this is “a community of women writers working together to support each other with strong attention to craft, to grow as writers and as people in community.” The volume includes poems written for seven workshops and self-portraits in poetry of the nine writers.

WWW at the Norton Simon Museum.August 2013.

L to R: Maja, Susan, Lois, Georgia, Sonya, Madeleine and Millicent.

To read the preface and find out which poems are included in which workshop sections, please visit the Moonrise Press Blog. My poems are found in most of the workshop sections: 1) Millicent's prompt, "The Lake of Claret," 2) A harpist at the Getty Villa - "Song of Stillness," 3) Van Gogh at Norton Simon Museum - "Into Color, Into Light," and "The Mulberry Song" 4) Grandparents - "How to Make a Mazurka," from Chopin with Cherries, and "Ciocia Tonia" from The Rainy Bread; 6. The Broad Museum - "The Infinity Room" and 7. Rivers - "Easter Apocalypsis."

The Lake of Claret

Maja Trochimczyk

The scent of cinnamon and nutmeg in the air
Hot sangria in my glass, white light shines
Through the rich hue of claret, opalescent
Like my silk scarf at a California party

I savor the taste of long ago – that evening
On the lake by the bonfire heating a huge metal pot
With cheap wine from bottles marked “Wino”
In a fake handwriting – no provenance,
no appellation controlée

We put plums, apples and piernik spices
Into our grzane wino during that fateful sailing trip
Spending nights under dark fir branches
Picking mushrooms and blueberries
In the underbrush

They thrive in acidic soil fed by rotting needles
Where a pungent smell of decay and fruit lingers
Beneath prickly juniper swathed in cobwebs
Drops of moisture gather on pine bark
Striped by shadows

A handful of wild strawberries glisten
Among delicate blades of grass in forest clearings
We lose our way, lured on by their promise
Of sweetness, their carmine hue, light aroma
Brightened by sunshine

We did not talk much then, my last year
Of wandering through Mazurian Lakes
Stopping at island coves, setting camp, moving on
After a morning dive to the sandy bottom,
Scattering the fish

It was best to listen to the wind in the treetops
Pine branches whispering to each other
About the end of summer, snow that will break them,
Icicles that may kill –grateful conversations never had

But now taking place

In my own Self-Portrait section, I put two poems about writing and our group, two about immigration and nostalgia for lost country, two about romantic love, and two about spiritual lessons in life. Some of my poems have been previously published and only one brand new: "Definition: Writing;" "In Millicent’s World;" "An Ode of the Lost;" "On Eating a Donut at the Kraków Airport;" "Shambhala; "“Look at me…”; "On Divine Comedy and Ice Cream;" "Repeat after Me;" and "In Morning Light."

I also selected a variety of illustrations from my thousands of nature photos, it took a while to pick them and then I had to change the selected images, because they did not work in black and white of the original paperback book. There will be color versions soon, so that's not a complete loss.

In an essay about my personal approach to poetry, I wrote:

Personally, I never considered poetry a “career.” I‘m already a musicologist (Ph.D.) and a grant writer; I do not need to make poetry into a job! Thus, I have avoided competitions and conferences, and initially wrote only for myself. Meanwhile, I discovered that having a roomful of people wait with bated breath for my next word was and is completely addictive. And the shortest way to finding myself in front of such an awe-struck audience is to workshop my poems with really talented poets.

In the following selections from 20 years of poetry-writing, I included self-portraits as an émigré, daughter, and lover, and a poem I wrote for Millicent, grateful for her charming and eccentric home with a rustic patio - daffodils in the spring, red-white-and-blue lanterns in the summer, and gold leaves in the autumn. I close my self-portrait with a “responsorial” poem from my Into Light book of spiritually inspired verse and incantations. Over the years, I wrote a lot of dirges and plaints; in this book, I gathered my positive, inspirational poems. It is time to think of what I’ll leave behind and those types of poems are my little treasures to be shared with children and friends.

For me, poetry writing truly is about “Grateful Conversations” – with myself, with my friends, with the world… I am deeply thankful for the ten years and many hours of conversing with Westside Women Writers!

The Infinity Room

At the Broad Museum, is closed, they say.

I do not trust them, anyway. I would not go in.

I find my own Infinity on the beach –

floating on the waves that cross the Pacific

to lick my toes covered with sand crystals.

It is scattered among multicolored pebbles

in shallow tide pools I walk through to reach you.

I’m home now.

My infinity stirs in dewdrops on the grass –

diamond sparks on moss green, chartreuse and celadon,

shining in early spring light.

It tastes refreshing in cold juice of an orange

picked in my garden when it is 33 outside. It echoes

in the melodious phrases of the mockingbird

that claims the top of my pine, its contours

outlined against the misty hilltops

and the bluest of California skies.

Where is yours? Where have you found

that spark, that voice, that calling?

Is it in the sunrays bouncing off the mirror surface of the lake,

splitting into a myriad prisms between your fingers -

your private rainbow? Or the hot desert wind

that challenges you to a race across sand dunes?

Maybe you walk into the white expanse of the museum

filled with a bunch of Jeff Koontz’s metallic balloons

and see yourself reflected in the smooth, polished skins,

bright and translucent like air bubbles, a giant child’s delight?

I hold a bouquet of infinity in my hand.

It opens to blossom in ellipses, circles, petals –

intersecting trajectories of light, reverberations

of energy reflecting a multitude of timelines –

crystal after crystal – wave after wave –

carnelian into amber into gold – emerald into sapphire

into quartz crystals – sparkling above a multitude

of mirrored cupolas – other infinities that pass me by.

In Morning Light

We live on a planet where it rains diamonds —
hard rain, sparkling crystal droplets — in the clouds,
in the air, on the ground under our feet.

Here, the Valentine’s Day falls on Ash Wednesday.
Red strawberries, wine-hot passion and Ashes to ashes,
dust to dust — lessons of impermanence of the body,
constantly reconfigured in a vortex of quarks and atoms
until the pattern dissolves like snow at the end of winter.
Delicate snowdrops peek from under the melting cover
of phantasmagorical shapes and figures.

Here, the Annunciation Day of Mary’s greatest joy
falls on Palm Sunday — from rainbow wings of Fra Angelico’s
Gabriel bowing before the shy, blushing maiden in royal blue
we look ahead to the green of palm fronds lining the streets
of Jerusalem. We welcome the destiny of the King.
We see red blood on the stones of Golgotha,
the Place of the Skull. Not even this is real.

No wonder, then, that Easter, the greatest Mystery —
of Death into Life, Spirit over Matter, the Divine
in an emptied human shell — Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachtani —
Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei — it is done —
yes, that Easter — is on April’s Fools Day this year.

We fool ourselves when we see death as enemy.
We spin our lives into thin filaments of a spider-web.
Illusion woven into illusion. Deception after deception.
They rise and fall with the rhythm of seductive charm.
The smiling demon is the most persistent. Incorrigible,

it pulls us down, down, down into the mud,
from whence we did not come. Nothingness
ties us up with bonds of non-belonging.

My revelation is this — we live on the planet
where it rains diamonds. We walk on untold treasures
that we do not notice — we forget and forget and forget
where we came from, where we are, where we are going.
We spin our future out of spider silk and shadows.

Our lives fill with the sand of dreams, changing
like shards of glass, broken bits of colored plastic
in a kaleidoscope — transfigured into the most
astounding waltz of the rosettes, reflected
in hexagonal mirrors of transcendence —

My revelation is this — we are the children
of Sunlight — blessed by Radiance — wearing
Love’s golden halos — we shine and blossom —
in Light’s cosmic garden of stars — lilies — violets —
peonies — daffodils —and roses — always roses —
in this brilliant garden — on a diamond planet —
of what is — in the Heart of the Great, Great Silence —

— there’s no here — nor there —
— no before — nor after —
— no inside — nor outside —

——— All is Always Now———
——— All is Always One———

——— Where We Are ———

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Ambika Talwar's "My Greece" - A Review by Lois P. Jones

My Greece Book - Link to Amazon.com

What do you want from a book? What do you want for the time you invest as a reader? I wish I could give Ambika Talwar's book 100 stars. A star to detail each of the many points of archeological light revealed through the thoughtful and erudite insights from My Greece: Mirrors & Metamorphoses. Every story is a journey but few journeys take the reader through so many passages. Within the passages are microcosms of life at its most intense, culture centric, and epoch-building experiences that move the protagonist through not only Greece’s most spellbinding architecture and landscapes but the innerworld of its inhabitants where cultural rights of passage – funerals, weddings and christenings take on mythological resonance and exposure to the elements (both ecological and human) present ecstatic inspirations and occasional alarming challenges.

This memoir is for everyone because its reflections resonate with existence. You poets, you travelers, you artists, film makers, bakers, merchants, fisherman, politicians, philosophers you. So much here that you will find yourself again and again. Do not let its 270 pages daunt you. Instead, spend delicious moments contemplating Talwar’s inner reflections which will spark your own epiphanies. Here are a few to whet your appetite: “deep inside our psyche, we know archetypes make us cousins.”

Ambika Talwar

“It’s amusing that some Greeks want everyone to have come from them, as though to be the originator of all cultures is an elevation by design. Why do many want to be the first? Others from ancient cultures also expound that the land of their origins is the oldest, the most…! Why not be among those that improve on the existing paradigms, as we so sorely need to do in these contemporary times so that we evolve our human civilizations past the horror that has been done?”

“Someone comes up and asks me where I have come from. They are Greek traveling from Greece and waiting for the wedding party. I say “both India and Los Angeles.” Living as a hybrid, I say I am from both places; both places elicit a warm response from most people—again I hear we are related from a long time ago. The US is not a place culturally appealing to many; they wonder aloud how I can live there coming from an ancient land. I don’t tell them how many Greeks I meet in Los Angeles. About my Greek dentist, about the wild man who jumps into his pool from a rooftop, about the aging dance teacher, about the woman who wooed a man with a red rose in her mouth, about my experience of the Greek Easter and the epitaphios at the local Greek Orthodox church.”

Brava to the sooth sayer, poet and traveler. Follow her journey and you will discover you own.

~ Lois P. Jones
Reprinted by Permission

Maja Trochimczyk and Ambika Talwar at Ambika's art exhibit.

My Greece Book - Link to Amazon.com

From the Introduction by Ambika Talwar:

My visit to Greece was wild, enriching, exhausting, and almost elegant. I traveled with companions and sometimes on my own; I visited many places old and new; I met people of many persuasions; I relished the foods; I felt exalted among ruins and antiquity. At times, I also felt alone and exhausted, and I was not able to write as per my plans. But I loved swimming in the different seas. I would love to return some day to this glorious country, to be again reminded of things both familiar and foreign.

~ I returned home excited about documenting my adventures to extract from them deeper meaning. This process became another journey as I chose to stay with my direct and remembered experience without research.

~ My visit was in 2002, and it is only now that I have been able to complete the process. Diverse challenges over the years, professional and personal, demanded my attention; I could have discarded the project completely. But my tenacity and my love for Greece would not allow me to fail myself. In 2013, I started to edit and rewrite the travelogue. I had started to forget incidents. Somehow, this forgetting, this emotional distance worked out better as I gained a clearer perspective and expression of wonder.

~ I urge you, my reader, to note that if any character bears resemblance to you or someone you know, please remember you are part of the collective and are uniquely singular at the same time. Although you were not in the lived experience of these travels, I wish that you feel moved in your own way to find yourself among these pages and journey along with me and with my co-travelers.

~ During my time in Greece, Athens was being readied for the 2004 Summer Olympics. Roads were broken for months for the restructuring. Too many one-way streets left people frustrated unable to get to their destination on time. Poverty had spread following the change to the Euro. Greece’s downfall had begun and was speeding up. Indeed in the last 9-10 years, Greece has taken a dastardly beating.

~ Perhaps, the repressive economic models, which have led to extreme competition and burdensome scarcity, have stirred in many the awakening of female spirituality. We rediscover that woman-centered systems (buried for eons) were based on our closeness with Nature and the elements, on reverence for the mysteries of cyclic orders, on communal sharing. These ways are in great need for the healing to happen today in our constrained times of endemic violence.

~ Surely, we must seed again our human capacity for love and caring, for kindness and intelligence to keep the world whole again. May we call in Areté, Eirene, Eros, Agape, and Sophia for that balancing virtue to make us whole again!

May we propitiate the Mahavidyas, fierce Mothers of all times who illumine dissolution of demonic forces, both personal and communal, and remind us to honor and embody the harmonics of nature so we may cohere and celebrate our unities. May we indeed awaken to our capacity for love, wherein is illumined the cosmic play of wonder.

~ Ambika Talwar

Maja Trochimczyk and Ambika Talwar

ABOUT THE AUTHOR - AMBIKA TALWAR

AMBIKA TALWAR is an India-born author, wellness consultant, artist, and educator whose vision is to realize her sacred destiny and invite others to find their brilliance. Insights gleaned through life challenges have prompted her to make her poetry a call to action. Composed in the ecstatic tradition, her poetry is a “bridge to other worlds.” She has authored Creative Resonance: Poetry—Elegant Play, Elegant Change and also 4 Stars & 25 Roses (poems for her father). She is published in various journals. She won Best Original Story award for her film “Androgyne” in Belgium. She asserts it is time for creative visionaries to offer narratives that change our worldview, and the big film studios must play a part in this transformation. An English professor, she lives in Los Angeles, Ca and New Delhi, India. For book readings, poetry presentations, healing workshops, and individual or group healing consultations, please contact her at: luminousfields@gmail.com

Web site: http://creativeinfinities.com