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

Poets, Poems Everywhere - Independence Day Parade, a Museum, a Convention - 7/2025

Poets Convertible with crew Josephine, Maja with a basket of poems and flags, poet konrad Wilk as the driver, Artur Wilk and Pam Shea ("Betsy Ross") who gave out postcards, former poet laureate Alice Pero and current poet laureate kathleen Travers.

Most of the time I have spent with poetry has been either with a page of paper or the computer screen as I write or edit my own poems and the California Quarterly.  Therefore, it was a great pleasure this July to participate in three fantastic poetry events in person! 

First I walked the route of Sunland-Tujunga's Independence Day parade, giving out 1000 poem postcards and 250 mini-flags (with two helpers) The postcards included two of my own poems, reproduced below and the first stanza of America the Beautiful, which should be American national anthem, but alas, is not... 

THE COLOR GUARD

Above the hills' crooked spine, clouds dissolve

into the azure. Dark red rose lazily unfolds its petals.

My “Mr. Lincoln” blossoms by the birch tree

with the innocence of long-lost, Polish summers.

White bark peaks from beneath green leaves.

White oleander spills over white picket fence.

The sapphire sky shines with the deepest blue of the iris.

Its yellow heart matches sunshine's purest gold,

bouncing off the brilliant sphere of the stamens

in the bridal silk of white matilla poppies.

My garden presents the colors at noon 

dressed in the red, white and blue of the flag.

At night, fireworks tear the indigo fabric

into light ribbons and multicolored sparks.

             

Fireworks scatter into chaos of laughter -

the children's delight - the Fourth of July!

(C) 2025 by Maja Trochimczyk 

This is a new version of a poem that earlier included references to the wonderful piece by Chares Ives, The Fourth of July that contains the best musical image of fireworks in a music history... But almost nobody in America   knows about Charles Ives, so I deleted this reference, alas...

When I gave out the other poem to one lady in the audience, she said she still had it on her fridge from last year, and I was happy to hear that,  but it is time to write a new Independence Day poem... 

INDEPENDENCE DAY

Red is the color of rocks in the Grand Canyon

White are the mountains, shining with snow.

Bue are the waves of Pacific Ocean.

Red, White and Blue - the colors of all

Red is the Earth from which we come

White is the Air that fills our lungs

Blue is the Water inside us, with Stardust

Red, White and Blue - connected in all.

Red is pure love, deep in our hearts

White is the brightness of our clear minds

Blue is serenity of well lived lives.

Red, White and Blue - freedom for all.

(C) 2018 by Maja Trochimczyk

Maja, Alice Pero and Hilda Weiss, 20/7/25

Two weeks later it was time for my poetry feature at Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga - at Village Poets of Sunland Tujunga. I was co-featured with Hilda Weiss of the Poetry A Video Series and environmental activism, so I selected poems about spiritual reflections rooted in nature... Josephine recorded my 19 min. reading in two parts. I managed to read quite a few poems because I did not spend any time on ubiquitous introductions explaining the poem before it is read. I quite dis lie those, so there...

I started from a challenge to action - a spot of sunlight moving across the hills I see from my window. 

Outside my Window

 

 

A round spot of gold light appears

on the smooth slope of California hills

green in the spring, shadowed by rainclouds.

 

Suddenly, an epiphany of light

blossoms among thickening shadows, 

dusk approaching soon, much too soon.

 

The shining circle stretches into an arrow, 

points west, along the ridge. 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 the cloud epiphany lingers,

etched onto my retina. This spot of light,

this arrow will always be with me—

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.

(c) 2022 by Maja Trochimczyk, from Bright Skies. Selected Poems.  Reprinted here

https://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2022/08/maja-trochimczyks-new-book-bright-skies.html

The next bunch featured poem reproduced here - and poems An Artichoke of a Poem, Mata Boska Zielna, The Infinity Room, Dragon Fruit Awareness... that appeared in Crystal Fire  Poems of Joy and Wisdom and the California Quarterly.  

Oh, the Art of Looking

Look ahead— 

wave and wave and wave

dance in the moonlight

a silver path across the ocean

shimmering horizon

stark intensity

of the Pacific

Look up—

the Milky Way

What do you see?

The spine of the world?

Buttons made of stars?

Indigo cupola with diamonds?

wave after wave after wave

Look inside—

deep into my eyes

electric currents flow

in an arc of brightness

connecting us into One

the Oneness we forgot

Now, we are alive, we are

One—the clear azure

of windswept sky—

the ruby wine

beneath roots

of the earth  

Look around—

wake up and see,

truly see where you are—

enveloped in a blanket

of time, carried

from now to now—

from wave to wave to wave

from Earth into Earth into One

(C) 2022 by Maja Trochimczyk, first published in California Quarterly 44 no. 4 . 

In the second part of the reading, I focused on newer poems from 2024 and those published in the anthology Crystal Fire. Poems of Joy and Wisdom (2022).  "Dragon Fruit Awareness" was already posted here, not long ago, in fact... "Grapes on a Vine" have also been reprinted on my blogs, so I'll not repost it here.  But I found a forgotten poem in my notes, and here it is (from July 2024).

Summer Bee Buzz

The bees buzz in the pin, crepe myrtle tree.

The sound of my childhood. 

I hear that enormous indent tree. I fee

those 21 stings in my head. The taste 

of fragrant amber of buckwheat honey.

My garden is tranquil in the morning before 

my neighbors get up. Only the golden orioles

make ratting noises with their harsh, 

machine-like voices. Maybe they will settle here. 

The intricate, sweet melodies of mockingbirds 

are gone. They moved on after the row of old 

oleanders was cut down. They used to bravely

fight with crows to protect their nests. 

Unfurled white stripes on gray brown tails

Now the orioles shine like pure god 

in sunlight. Such lovely plumage

Such hoarse rattles of their sounds --

                                                               Bizarre...

You cannot have everything.

                                                    You must choose.

The transient body or the timeless soul

Riches of appearance, or the deep truth of the heart. 

"My kingdom is not of this world" 

                                                -- the teacher said. 

         Indeed.

(c) 2024 by Maja T.

The reading ended with "A Declaration" with its refrain, so suitable for this reading - "I am a sovereign citizen of the galaxy"...

Six days later, I was already in Albuquerque, NM, at the convention of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, where I represented California as the President of its State Poetry Society since 2019. It was the first time attending a meeting with 30 other State Societies' Presidents and I felt it was worth my time. These days, given I'm already past 64 (from the Beatles song), and fast approaching 68, I do what is "worth my time" and ignore things that are not... Seen from the air, the earth was covered with patterns of light and shadow,  as are our lives...

Since it was my first time in Albuquerque, I decided to visit some scenic sites - and my first choice was the Turquoise Museum. I was so impressed that I wrote about turquoise and sent my poem to its Executive Director... I think I'll place it in the California Quqarterly.

Back at the NFSPS Convention, by chance, I participated in a Slam Poetry style Haiku Death Match.  Of 16 Participants, one was crowned the Death Match Champion. Three haiku were read in each round, where two poets were set against each other, replying with a haiku to haiku.  Three-person pane judged the poems and picked the winner who got the best of three. At first, I only had two haiku ready - for I thought it was just a regular reading. But after the rues were announced I scrolled through my gmail messages and found old submissions to our Haiku Study Group Anthologies - and that was enough to find myself in semifinals, defeated by the champion Jerry Hardesty of Alabama. So much fun!  Some of these mini poems appeared in the SCHSG anthologies in 2021, 2022 and 2024. One was just printed in the CQ v. 51 no. 2 (Summer 2025).

First round haiku

Shapeshifting clouds shade

                cement prison housing blocks -

                                              longing for freedom

Roadrunner waits for me, 

                   a limp lizard in its beak -

                                                                                    Carpe Diem

 

 In SCHSG Anthology "The Taste of Sunlight" (2022) 

old linden tree 

             in her empty courtyard -

      the scent of memories 

Second round haiku

           "let me go!"

my kite tugs on its string -

                          we dream of freedom

the flutter of wings

               interrupts my thoughts -

                                       a feather-light heart

Dead Sea Scrolls unfurl

            insights for 3 millennia

                      "you shall... you shall not..."

 In California Quarterly, v. 51, no. 2 (Summer 2025)

Third round haikn

shadow and light - 

               yes and no chase each other 

                                               in circular motion

In San Diego Poetry Annual 2023-24

 

`high school latin class

             Ars longa Vita Brevis -

                             true beauty lingers

In SCHSG Anthology "The Taste of Sunlight" (2022) 

one breath, one bite,

      one thought, one step at a time  -

                                    the measure of life

 

16 contestants and the MC, NFSPS Convention, 26/7/2025

we doze off under

protection of cloud dragon -

or is it a rabbit? 

Photos of nature and clouds by Maja T.