On American virtues - Charlie Kirk in memoriam

   On Earth, we are ants,

   crushed by wheels of history - 

   in Heaven, starlight

     Rest in peace and shine brightly for us to see the light, Mr. Charlie Kirk (1993-2025). 

I was profoundly moved by this vicious assassination for personal reasons. In my editorial in the Poetry Letter, No. 3 of 2025, I tried to capture my distress about this national tragedy, but got bogged down in too many details. So I moved the longer version of my text here and expanded it, adding new haiku and older poems. 

 https://www.californiastatepoetrysociety.com/2025/09/csps-poetry-letter-no-3-of-2025-part-i.html

When I attended high school in Poland, it seemed that almost every month brought a commemoration of a national tragedy – 17 January 1945 was the “Liberation of Warsaw” Day when the Red Army finally entered an empty, ruined city (all residents had already been deported and the city had systematically been dynamited by Germans, in retribution for the Warsaw Uprising, 1 August to 3 October, 1944 – with over 220,000 dead, a painful national wound). The January Uprising against Russians was long ago, in 1863 – it drained the nation of its leaders, murdered or exiled.

The 10^th of February 1940 marked the start of mass deportation of Poles from the country’s eastern part, occupied by Soviets – taken to Siberia or Kazakhstan, over one million perished, about 3.5 million were displaced. In March 1968 we had student revolts for freedom and the “socialist” government’s crackdown coupled with an anti-Semitic campaign that gave one-way tickets to the remnant of Polish Jewry. The whole month of April was about WWII – concentration camps, death camps, and their victims – nearly 6 million, half Jewish, half Christian; but we also remembered the 1.5 million Armenians and their genocide of 1915. 

The 9^th of May marked the end of WWII, commemorated battle by battle; the 1st of September was the start of the school year, but also the anniversary of Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939. The end of October brought everyone to cemeteries and monuments, with candles and wreaths, to remember all the dead, especially soldiers and war victims. Zaduszki (All Souls’ Day) continued, de facto, through November (with November Uprising of 1831 marking the historical horizon, when thousands of fighters were killed, deported to Siberia, or exiled). The 13th of December 1981 was the anniversary of Martial Law used by the “socialist” government to suppress the Solidarity movement – resulting in yet another wave of repressions, deaths, and mass migration. Some of these dates were taught at schools, others, secretly, at home. Some are now being forgotten while new national martyrdom celebrations emerge. . .

I lived in Poland for 30 years, in Canada for 8 years and in the U.S. for another 30 years.  When I came to this country I made a choice about my identity, that I recently described for a friend who asked me "what it means for you to be Polish American?"  My answer:

At a time of globalist attacks against humanity and purposeful efforts to destroy  nation-states in Europe and the Western civilization worldwide, it is paramount to preserve, protect and perpetuate the multitude of national, linguistic and ethnic identities that contribute to the spiritual and material richness of this world.  Poland, in Europe, continues to be inhabited by its indigenous population that settled those lands thousands of years ago, after the last ice age. As a proud descendant of Slavs - Poles and Byelorussians - I'm aware of the abundant treasures of history, language and culture that constitute my personal Polish heritage and my challenge - to remember, contribute to, and cherish.  As an immigrant to America, where I ended up after a convoluted and difficult life journey, I'm a proud citizen of this great nation, founded only 250 years ago, but making a dramatic change in the world's history. Here, in the U.S., the individual's rights and freedoms are protected by the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. Our country is not a democracy but a republic, where every citizen can create a successful life and contribute to the whole national tapestry in a unique way. Since coming here I have consciously made a decision to become an American of Polish descent, not a Pole in America. As a historian, I write about Polish Americans, Poles in America and Americans of Polish descent. As a Californian poet, I write in English, the language of my choice. But I write about my Polish childhood, the war tragedies of my family - and my sunny California garden, my home.  

Emigrating to the U.S. meant learning an entirely new calendar of national sorrows; there were fewer than in Poland, perhaps because of the national focus on success, not martyrdom, perhaps because the U.S. avoids remembering the dead (Halloween!!!) and teaching the tragic war history in the media. Here, I kept reading about the Pearl Harbor attack of 7 December 1941 and deaths of thousands of American soldiers, remembered along with the victims of the Hiroshima atomic bomb atrocity of 6 August 1945 and the atomic annihilation of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. But not much more. Things changed on 11 September 2001 when nearly three thousand people were murdered, and the endless War on Terror began. 

On 10 September 2025, a martyr of free speech was assassinated in front of his wife, young daughter, thousands of students, and bystanders. Charlie Kirk (1993-2025) was viciously shot in a political assassination, that continued an infamous American “tradition.” Let’s recall the assassinations of Presidents Abraham Lincoln (1865), James A. Garfield (1881), William McKinley (1901), and John F. Kennedy (1963). If we add to this list the presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy (1968) and the civil right leader Martin Luther King (1968), the image of a deadly political culture is bleak.

My parents in the desert of Abu Dhabi, 1990s.

I’m particularly sensitive to this issue, since my parents were shot by robbers in their summer house in the Polish village on 3 April 2000. My father Aleksy Trochimczyk was shot through the stomach, with injury to major organs, and after a year in the hospital, multiple surgeries, dialyses, blood transfusion, died a year later. My mother, Henryka Trochimczyk lived for 13 years after having 1/3 of her lung amputated. The bullet went 3 cm. away from her heart. This was a robbery, not an assassination, my parents were victims, not martyrs. But I’m “allergic” to anyone claiming that anyone, anywhere, has any “right” to express their opinion by committing murder. That’s the playbook of Nazis and Communists.

What is true? What's real? 

A wise man asks young students

Silence, their answer.

  Or, maybe I should write "bullet" and "cheering" - "their answer" - how utterly inhuman.

 

After immigrating to America, and moving into my home in California, I slowly started to learn about my new country. At first, seeing American flags everywhere felt strange, we did not do it  in Poland.  Then, I saw all my neighbors decorating their houses with flags and bunting for the Fourth of July. They told me to go see our homegrown local Independent day parade ... In my youth, in "socialist" Poland, the flag and national symbols were taken over by the government, so people retreated into homes and churches. There was no flag waving, no public displays of patriotism, just Corpus Christi and Easter processions in the streets…

        Corpus Christi in Warsaw - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiNAJIKnVf0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjKrjOEZXZk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtdVcNL8NDA

But in California, my three-year-old son, in pre-kindergarten Robbin's Nest, commenced each day with reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, toddlers turned towards the flag in the playroom’s corner. Every classical music concert at the Hollywood Bowl starts with the national anthem, and the whole audience holds their right hands on their hearts while singing "the land of the brave..."  So, I printed out the words, and put the note into my wallet, and started  singing along. . . Then, I bought a flag for my porch, and after my Canadian, “un-American”  husband finally moved to Canada, I had that flag installed. My neighbor did it for me, the same one who changed my broken screen… 

With such good neighbors, I decided to make this little house in the mountains my real home, my hermitage, my shelter, my refuge. If it were American, on American land, I had to become American, too.  My neighbors helped. Ours is the best neighborhood in the country. When my kids lost their house keys on the way to or back from school for the umpteenth time, I decided to stop locking the door during the day. We did it at night, but in the morning, we just left, waving bye-bye to the kind neighbors, trusting they would keep watching over us, without being intrusive. The neighbors were always in…My next door neighbor actually still has my keys for emergencies, when I travel to Europe... 

Garden with mockingbirds - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjKrjOEZXZk (two birds)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aKsDADyjmQ  (roses)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvDxBt9RVKs (one rose)

So my first lesson of what it means to be American is patriotism. Love your country, wave that flag, sing that anthem... 

My second lesson in being American is – being a good neighbor. On my street, we had our 40th Easter egg hunt this year, with over 30 grandchildren of the original neighbors, including those who moved away but still cherish this tradition. I hide 40 chocolate-stuffed eggs  and two golden ones with money in my front yard. The young ones are having fun, parents drink coffee and chat. 

If there were a wildfire, as in 2017, seniors, mothers and children would evacuate, while the men  would stay to extinguish the ambers falling on all houses on our street, keep pouring water from all the sprinklers and hoses, on all the roofs.  The good neighbor -  a Republican who'd save a Democrat in the fire...

That’s how it was, that’s how it is, that’s how it should be: “Hi, Maja” – at the post office. “Good morning, Maja” – at the grocery store.”  “long time, no see” – at the bakery. Kindness, friendliness, support, and respect for individual rights and choices. Alas, we have to lock the doors now– after the border was opened to anyone from the whole planet to just walk in and take what was not theirs, the area filled with strangers who even put up tents on busy streets, and moved their RVs onto some alleys. They did not dare take over ours. My good neighbors have guns.

As a patriotic American poet, I ride or walk in the Independence Day Parade - and give out postcards with poems, here's one from last year... 

https://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2024/07/poets-in-parade-celebrating.html

FREEDOM IS NOT FREE
 

Someone works to keep it.
Someone stands guard for the republic.
Semper Fides. Always Faithful.
 
Would I be brave enough
to stand guard with them?
 
Freedom is not free.
 
I work hard to win it for myself.
I strive to not be swayed left or right.
I stand tall with the eyes on the prize ahead.
My steps — on the straight and narrow.
 
Free —
            from vain ambitions, obsessions,         
            sorrows, fears, resentments and regrets.
Free —
             to live well, create, speak up,
care for, share joy, and love.
 
“I am —You are — We are”—this love,
the glue that holds the cosmos together,
in harmony — a forgotten word —
“harmony” — the order of beauty and peace.
 
What is freedom?
            Cosmos, not chaos. Harmony, not discord.
            Gratitude. Divine perfection blooming in all. 
            Red-white-and-blue waving in the breeze.
            Fireworks in July evening sky.

            

 

 

Maja Trochimczyk, © 4 July 2024

 

The third truly American virtue that I've earned since moving here 28 years ago, is tolerance - but not the suicidal faux compassion of current governments in Western Europe.  It is the simple rule of "live and let live."  In other words: "Do not do unto others, what you do not want others to do unto you" - the Golden Rule. To me, it seems deeply Christian in its genesis, or maybe universal as the variants of the Golden Rule, the main ethical concept, appear in Buddhism, Judaism, or Hinduism, not just  Christianity. It means that I have to live my life to the best of my ability, use my talents to benefit the greatest number of people, not just enrich myself, or my immediate family.  It also means that I have to refrain from harming, judging, and condemning anyone else, while living my own life without fear of rejection or condemnation. "To each their own" (another ancient Christian saying). Thus, if I do not appreciate the pop music blasting from loudspeakers on the Venice Beach, I go find another spot... but can write a haiku about it...

the soothing ocean waves

silenced by blaring pop songs - 

California beach

Then, instead of the crowded Venice beach, I can go to Oxnard's Mandalay Beach and be almost alone at a wide expanse of sand, waves, and sky.  I recorded such waves in Oxnard - the breath of the ocean https://youtu.be/qSL_tyrsdpQ. Though they hardy sound peaceful... seem rather dangerous, with hidden power within... 

On another occasion, I recorded parts of the Mass at the Notre Dame in Paris, before the fire (2015). So peaceful,,, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZsOBsT-pwo

As poets, we do not discuss religion, do not “call upon God’s name”  in vain. Since I’ve changed my views and religious beliefs so profoundly several times during my adventurous life, I do not like to “proselytize” or convince anyone of my truth. What if I change my mind again? Who knows if what I believe now is my final truth?  

Do I know better? 

The question of a lifetime

- without an answer

Charlie Kirk was different. He boldly professed his faith in Jesus, the tenets of his faith, rooted in the Bible that he cited often. Yes, I did not feel comfortable with some parts of his discussions and debates. After decades as an atheist, I became very Catholic, and moved on to  believing in reincarnation. But I'm not a Protestant, and do not like to call upon "Jesus" in public. On that point, we disagreed. But we also had something in common. Charlie Kirk described the ideal Christian life of a husband, a good son, a worker,  a citizen. That's what my Catholic nun Godmother taught - in order to go to Church on Sunday, you have to be the best possible mother, daughter, friend, worker, scholar...  every day of the week... 

For Charlie, courage was the most important virtue, for me it was one of the four virtues forming a perfect cross - courage tempered by  moderation, justice defined by prudence, or wisdom. These "cardinal virtues" are at the core of Christian Western ethics.  With Greek and Roman roots... 

THE CORNERSTONE

Justice: Do what's right, what's fair.
Fortitude: Keep smiling. Grin and bear.
Temperance: Don't take more than your share
Prudence: Choose wisely. Think and care.

Find yourself deep within your heart
In a circle of cardinal virtues
The points of your compass
Your Cornerstone.

Once you've mastered the steps, new ones appear.
Faith: You are not alone.
Hope: And all shall be well...
Love: The very air we breathe
Where we are.

I first posted this poem in 2012, when I was teaching inmates in a class at Pitchess Detention Center  called EVA - Ethics and Values in Art.  I then discovered the amazing Hawaiian practice of ho'oponopono - Love and Forgiveness... It seems to me that the young man martyred so cruelly in front of thousands, his wife, and his young daughter, was practicing this virtuous behavior in his own life. 

ON SQUARING THE CIRCLE 

It is a simple square that contains the circle —
four ideas, four words —
— Sorry — Forgive — Thank — Love —

No need for explanations,
long winding roads of words
leading into the arid desert
of heartless intellect, auras
of geometric shapes floating above
your head — a scattered halo
of squares, sharp-edged cubes
prickly triangles, and hexahedrons
No, not that. Instead let us find
the cornerstone. Simplicity.

Sorry — to erase the past
Forgive— to open a path into the future
Thank— to suffuse the way, each moment
with the velvet softness of gratitude
Love — to find a pearl unlike any other,
a jewel of lustrous shine — incomparable,
​dazzling, smooth, pulsating sphere

A dot on the horizon grows
as you, step by step, come closer
until you enter into the shining
palace without rooms
where inside is outside,
the circumference is in the point,
the point in the circumference—

where movement is stillness
and stillness dances within —
traveling to a myriad planets,
suns, galaxies, with unheard-of
velocity, everywhere at once

Love everyone — Respect everything

*     *    *
So that’s how you square a circle

 Maja Trochimczyk, published in Into Light (2016),

reprinted in Altadena Poetry Review (2018)

https://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2012/04/poetry-for-children-and-for-prisoners.html

During that year that the world was supposed to end (2012, right?), I was trying to figure out what virtues meant for me. Gratitude came on top. 

https://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2012/11/on-virtues-and-gratitude-in-time-for.html

Big Tujunga Wash with an artwork by Barbara Koziel Gawronska 

that features Polish fields seen from a train window... 

Sometimes it is very hard to be grateful. For instance, when my friend Basia Gawronska died of stroke in 2009, on Monday before the Thanksgiving feast I was to attend with her. A sudden death, not a murder, not an assassination, yet she left a hole in our lives. I wrote two memorial poems for her, after a very sorrowful funeral, where everyone was crying, here's one written from a distance in time. There was Basia with us, but she is not here anymore. There was a moment of wonder captured in her artwork - she implied Divine presence by adding golden threads or small mirrors to her art... The poem brings images of transience, a sound that's ending and resonates in memory, an image of a horse running to the fence, where it stops. But there is a hint of the Divine in the spiraling movement  of the bird up air currents, of the soul into "ascension" - carried on the Divine wings...

Ascension - A Memorial Poem

                     Basia Koziel Gawrońska in memoriam

If you go down Oro Vista towards the mountains,

and look up between the crape myrtle’s 

reddish leaves, you’ll see a hawk circling 

above charred slopes, blackened gullies.  

Higher, higher, rising to the white stripes

of clouds that measure the blue expanse,

a hang glider flies, looking for happiness,

like the hawk searching for mice.  

If Basia were with us, she’d sketch

the blur of motion in her notebook,

the horse that ran down the muddy slope,

her mane flowing, body shining against the bare 

soil beaten to a pulp. She looks like, she is,

freedom, until the chain-link fence stops her. 

We, too, cherish glimpses of elation,

affection growing in the garden

between strawberries and sage.  

The air cupola shifts above a gingko tree.

The flutter of yellow triangles moves

indigo depths of the sky. Strong

branches spread the joy of centuries. 

Basia’s gone. What are we,

but the leaves turning gold,

catching the last rays of crimson light?

We dance like fireflies at dusk. 

Long ago, when the clanging

of milk pails announced the waning

of the day in a Polish village,

we heard echoes of funereal bells,

calling, ringing out to heaven. 

Basia’s gone. The black mare stops,

bewildered, panting. Her mane

still waltzes like the waves of the tide. 

The gingko leaves fall. The hawk 

and the glider meet and part high up 

where the clouds open for Basia 

to come in with her sketchbooks, paintings, 

her silvery threads of light, and mirrors 

she broke for us to see where we are.

So I remember Basia every Thanksgiving.  And to keep being grateful now, I follow an account on x.com "Daily Gratitude" and each day it brings reminder of obvious and hidden blessings to ponder and be grateful for. My bones, electricity, running water... neighbors... So let me end this set of reflection with a simple thought: 

The life of Charlie was a blessing for his friends and for strangers, a challenge for his enemies, a gift of inspiration and reflection for us all. 

On Virtues and Gratitude in Time for Thanksgiving

For my class on Ethics and Values in the Arts that I taught at the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, I tried to simplify the centuries of moral teaching into a clear scheme that's easy to visualize and remember. I came up with an idea of focusing on virtues, and selected Four Cardinal Virtues as the core. I enriched this framework with what I called the Four Moral Actions. Below are fragments of my introduction that outline some of these fruitful ideas. I end with a couple of poems on gratitude, that I'm gradually learning every day.

On Cardinal Virtues and Moral Actions

What is a Virtue? Virtues are character traits that help individuals orient their lives towards a greater good. Virtues help people act properly, morally. The word “virtue” stems from a Latin root, “virtus” – which, in turn, comes from the word “vir” – “man.” The dictionary definition brings together several related meanings:

• 1. Moral excellence; goodness; righteousness.
• 2. Conformity of one's life and conduct to moral/ethical principles; uprightness; rectitude.
• 3. A particular moral excellence, like cardinal virtues
• 4. A good or admirable quality or property: the virtue of knowing one's weaknesses.

A traditional list is that of the Seven Contrary Virtues which are opposites of the Seven Deadly Sins:

• Humility – the opposite of Pride
• Kindness – the opposite of Envy
• Abstinence – the opposite of Gluttony
• Chastity – the opposite of Lust
• Patience – the opposite of Anger
• Liberality – the opposite of Greed
• Diligence – the opposite of Sloth

Its focus on the negative, the deadly sins merely mirrored in the positive attributes, has underscored centuries of moral education that centered on avoidance of evil and fear of punishment, instead of pursuit of the greater good for good’s sake. The purpose of virtues is to act more human, to help create and strengthen societal bonds based on love (trust, honesty, fairness) and to help each individual succeed in his or her pursuit of personal happiness.

In the 20th century, a French philosopher, Andre Comte-Sponville wrote a treatise about 18 different virtues, which included all the above Spiritual/Cardinal Virtues and more. This set of virtues appears in the context of his atheistic and humanistic philosophy: Politeness, Fidelity, Prudence, Temperance, Courage, Justice, Generosity, Compassion, Mercy, Gratitude, Humility, Simplicity, Tolerance, Purity, Gentleness, Good Faith, Humor, Love.

 The unusual list includes the “pre-virtue” of politeness with a surprising and the novel virtue of humor. The discussion of these virtues will be focused on their links to underlying values – physical, psychological or spiritual, and their expressions from the values of being useful, through being pleasurable, to being, to being spiritual.

What about the Cardinal Virtues?

They were outlined in the classic antiquity by Aristotle and Plato:

•  Courage (Fortitude), 
• Wisdom (Prudence), 
• Justice, and 
• Moderation (Restraint, Temperance).

These “four cornerstones of the soul” have been taught to generations to create a moral framework for individual lives and create a balance between the excesses of each of these virtues appearing by itself, in isolation. In the four-part ethical framework presented here, the severity of Justice is balanced by the gentleness of Wisdom (Prudence), which, without the urgent sense of fairness could devolve into fear and inaction. The bravado of Courage (Fortitude) is balanced by the meekness of Moderation (Temperance, Restraint), which, without the passion of courage, may result in withdrawal and passivity.

The image of the “cardinal” virtues is related to the “cardinal points” on a map (North-East-South-West), as a compass for moral life. In a graphic representation, the virtues are located at 0, 90, 180, and 270 degrees on the circle, with the heart of an individual in its center. In another image, they form a circle around a central point and connect to one another; thus surrounding and protecting the core of one’s being.
The balancing act of practicing the cardinal virtues requires a focus on the present, on this infinitely small point in time in which we live, constantly moving from the past to the future. It is by paying attention to present actions, thoughts, and emotions, and by seeking the proper balance of justice with wisdom, and courage with moderation, that an individual may act in a virtuous way and may set a course of his/her life towards real happiness.

The four cardinal virtues, practiced in a way that they balance each other and help the individual remain in the center: courage will be tempered by moderation, wisdom will inform justice. The virtues will change the invisible attitude but will be visibly expressed in moral actions. The direction for the cardinal virtues, the “needle of the compass” are the three spiritual virtues: faith (in one’s own goodness and potential on the one hand and in the goodness of the world on the other), hope (in one’s ability to accomplish one’s goals in the future and in the benevolence of others who will be helpful and will share one’s successes and help on the spiritual path) and love (for oneself and others, spreading from within in concentric circles from the nearest kin and closest friends, to all people).

THE CORNERSTONE

Justice: Do what's right, what's fair.

Fortitude:  Keep smiling. Grin and bear.

Temperance: Don't take more than your share.

Prudence: Choose wisely. Think and care.

Find yourself deep within your heart

               In a circle of cardinal virtues

                                  The points of your compass

                                                    YOUR CORNERSTONE.

Once you've mastered the steps, new ones appear:

Faith:   You are not alone . . .
Hope:  And all shall be well . . .
Love:    The very air we breathe

                          WHERE WE ARE. . .

_____________________________________

The poem may be recited by a group of at least three participants -  the colors indicate individual voices and the text in black font and caps is said by the whole group. Try it!

_____________________________________

Virtues in Practice: Moral Actions

In order to be fully effective and surround the individual with a protective circle that will ensure selecting the best option from thousands of possible choices, the Cardinal Virtues should be associated with a mirror framework of four Moral Actions that both modify and express them.

• Compassion (Justice) – I am compassionate, I share pain
• Forgiveness (Courage) – I am forgiving, I let go of pain
• Generosity (Moderation) – I am generous, I share joy
• Gratitude (Wisdom) – I am grateful, I thank for joy

I selected these four Moral Actions from a multitude of possibilities as echoes or reflections of emotions with which they are bound; these are the opposite of such actions that would result from fully giving in to negative emotions.Compassion or co-suffering is an antidote for anger and grief; it helps break the isolation and alienation caused by the negativity of violence (anger) or withdrawal (grief). Forgiveness breaks apart the toxic shame and fear that again, prevent us from integrating ourselves into whole and healthy individuals and connecting to others in a healthy, well-adjusted way. It is, by far, the hardest of all Moral Actions, as it is based on overcoming the consequences of profound traumas, seared in the memory of pain. Generosity reaches out to the others, while Gratitude permeates the person and all the individual actions with a spirit of thankfulness that lights it all up with joy from within.

The Moral Actions, when taken and practiced together, unify a person’s core being around positive, healing attitude that extend from self to others, from an individual self-definition, to the self-in-the-world. Compassion and Generosity breaks the isolation and create communities. Forgiveness and Gratitude have the greatest healing impact internally, when applied to oneself. Practicing these Moral Actions, based within Cardinal Virtues is a transformative act that results in the healing of an individual person while simultaneously healing the world. Through the practice of Virtue, the present moment is permeated with positive Moral Actions.

Justice is truly “fair” when it is based on compassion, defined as shared suffering, “feeling for/with the other,” or “I know your pain.” Courage to forgive is far more powerful than courage to fight, it is far more liberating than courage to merely endure and survive. Forgiveness gives rise to courage, courage to forgiveness. The generosity of sharing joy may be the one difference between a true saint and an ordinary moral person. For the ordinary person, lacking the convictions or the endurance of a saint, generosity is to be tempered by Moderation, all actions made within reason. True Wisdom arises from gratitude: we are deeply thankful for every opportunity to feel, live and share, grateful for every day, every breath. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) expressed the feeling of universal gratitude in a beautiful maxim: “Two things awe me the most: the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.”

Intertwined with the Cardinal Virtues, the four Moral Actions form yet another protective circle of goodness. Compassion and Generosity are primarily directed outside the circle, towards others whose suffering we understand and with whom we share our gifts. Forgiveness and Gratitude are primarily directed inwardly. We heal ourselves first; we learn to be thankful for our own gifts first. Then we can turn towards the others. The image of oxygen masks falling down on the plane is appropriate here: the adult passengers have to put on, adjust and fasten their own masks first, and only later, while already able to breathe, they should turn to take care of others. We heal ourselves by forgiving ourselves first and by learning to be thankful for the little things in life. Then, we can go on and find a place, mission, or purpose for our future Moral Actions concerning others.

___________________________________

SONG OF GRATITUDE

Love’s gift cannot be given, It waits to be accepted
~ Rabindranath Tagore, “Fireflies”

I’m filled with gratitude. It makes me sleepy.
I’m ready to purr with contentment
like a stray cat that found its pillow.

The warmth of satiation shines
a smile plays in the corner of my mouth,
full of your kisses - the softest kind.

My lungs expand with fresh afternoon breeze
bearing a hint of orange blossoms
Too early for jasmine. I close my eyes.

I live in the moment when our togetherness
slipped from my fingers. I listen
to the monotone chant of the mourning dove.

I watch the ruckus of house sparrows
fighting for a crumb on a cement path
overgrown with weeds, sprouting through crevices.

Life is stronger than stone.

I’m grateful for each breath
filled with loving you. I rest
in this knowledge, this air...

The Good One, the All-Knowing Wisdom
will not deny my prayers. Shameless, insistent,
I’m the dove that refuses to be silent.

This is my song. This is my melody,
My thankfulness, my Amen.

Let it be, God, let him be. 


(c) 2009 by Maja Trochimczyk

_________________________________

A Box of Peaches

You locked your Wisdom in a gilded box
Placed dainty flowers where metal bars
Cross to hold them

You made a window for Compassion
To look out from onto the world

Glowing with the unseen

Would the talisman of the Smiling One

In your pocket save you? Draw luck
To your game of cards?

Let it be, let the ancient words fall

On a carpet of bronze petals on your path
Dappled with tree shadows 

Walk slowly through the magic

Orchard filled with an avalanche of peaches
Ripening in the sunset

Stoop down to pick one, feel its warmth
In your hand, taste the mellow richness
beneath the fuzzy, wrinkled skin

Say to no one in particular
The sun maybe, or the tree, or this late hour – 
Thank you, yes, thank you very much


(c) 2011 by Maja Trochimczyk

___________________________________________

NOTE: Photos of pomegranates and Liquid Amber trees in Sunland, November 2012 by Maja Trochimczyk.  The peaches were too early. We ate them in July.

Poetry for Children and for Prisoners

On March 26, 2012 I started a new adventure - teaching a class on art and ethics to inmates of Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, CA. I designed my four-part class as lessons in connecting feelings to thoughts, by using artwork, music, and poetry - a full range of artistic experiences - to teach virtues and called it EVA Ethics and Values in Art. The framework is provided by the Four Cardinal Virtues - courage, justice, wisdom or prudence and moderation, or temperance. Known since antiquity and used to teach moral values and character through over two thousand years of Western history, the virtues have largely been forgotten. Their presence in the lives of artists and their artwork is very strong, from Rembrandt to Chopin... I associated each virtue with an emotion - grief, shame, joy and calm and with a moral action - compassion, forgiveness, generosity and gratitude...

While designing the curriculum, I thought I would be teaching women, so I was quite surprised when I was sent to a men's institution. At Pitchess, they have been given a chance to think through their decisions and change their lives. The group I'm working with has decided to do exactly that. They enrolled in and graduated from the MERIT-WISE program, a part of the Sheriff's Education-Based Incarceration project.



Now, they participate in various workshops and classes taught by volunteers like me. The majority have never been to an art museum or a classical music concert. My goal is to help them find their way to the Hollywood Bowl . . . That and not to return to jail. How does one do that?

THE CORNERSTONE

Justice: Do what's right, what's fair.
Fortitude: Keep smiling. Grin and bear.
Temperance: Don't take more than your share
Prudence: Choose wisely. Think and care.

Find yourself deep within your heart
In a circle of cardinal virtues
The points of your compass
Your Cornerstone.

Once you've mastered the steps, new ones appear.
Faith: You are not alone.
Hope: And all shall be well...
Love: The very air we breathe
Where we are.

The framework I designed and teach right now is non-religious and, therefore, I skip the three Theological Virtues mentioned at the end of my poem. There is enough material for discussion though in the paintings of the Prodigal Son and Tobias by Rembrandt, Guernica by Picasso, City Whispers by Susan Dobay... There is enough inspiration in the Revolutionary Etude by Chopin and the Ode to Joy by Beethoven. If I put my own poetry in this context, am I acting grandiose and, as someone once called me (to my immense delight) - a megalomaniac? The point is to find yourself in your own words. I may "know" what's out there or what I've been taught, but I truly know only what I have experienced myself. I have to go deep inside, to the truth about me, to express a vision of the world that is both deeply personal and unique in my poetry.

Non Omnis Moriar

Only the best will remain.
Startled by beauty
I fly into the eye of goodness.

Only the best . . .
Wasted hours, words, signs,
Sounds and fake symbols.

Only:
Blue torrents of feeling
Crystallized in empty space
Twisted above our heads
Where light freezes
Into sculpted infinity

Oh,

If I could be there

Once

________________________________________________


On March 2 2012 I paid my annual visit to the Pacoima Charter School to participate in the Read Across America event during which volunteers go to classrooms and read books to the kids, to inspire in them a life-long fascination with reading. My fifth graders were fascinated with the fact that they saw in front of them an actual poet, someone who wrote books she held in her hands.

This year, I selected several poems about art - including Water Lilies by Claude Monet, paintings from the Awakenings series by Susan Dobay, a number of landscape paintings from the annual Manzanar Internment Camp Workshop, and my own photographs from the "My Sky" poem. At the end, I led the children in writing their own two poems, a haiku of sorts, and a couplet stanza. The assignment was to describe the feelings one has in the spring and the favorite things to do at that time.

swimming in happiness
sunny and sleepy
we bloom in the spring

And the second one:


fun in the sun
getting a tan
under the trees
feeling the breeze



Just right for a bunch of ten year olds... When I was leaving, a girl handed me a strip of paper that she tore out of her notebook. She wrote: "Thank you, Maja for a sweet treat to read the Poems that sink Into our heart." A sweet treat, indeed.

__________________________________________

Photos from Big Tujunga Wash and Pacoima Charter Elementary (c) 2012 by Maja Trochimczyk