Rose Poems from "Shadows - Leaves - Roses" Exhibition in Monrovia - to September 22, 2013

At the opening of my exhibit of photography and poetry at the Scenic Drive Gallery in September 2013, I read  a selection of poems that were either unpublished or appeared in Miriam's Iris  (the ones with numbers in titles), or Rose Always. 

Amor 6

the more I love

the more dangerous

life becomes

in its graphic beauty

carved with a dagger

stolen from time

the blade cuts

old wounds open

it slides on the skin

of the moment 

 pierced by knowing 

© 2006 by Maja Trochimczyk

Desert Rose

I grow roses in the desert

They wither in merciless sun

Their petals, scorched by the heat,

crumble into dust

from which they came

The magic of water and light

brings them back.

Open blossoms smile at me

shyly

One after one after one

they come to make love

with the air

They shrivel

to stay unchanged

clinging to life that left them

© 2001 by Maja Trochimczyk

Rosa Incognita

it had to be the eleventh,

the time of perfect absence

of all time’s measure,

the number so uncounted

that doubly prime –

the day of fullness

in a second there is

a universe never heard of

in a glimpse  –  a mystery

fully apprehended

once for all understood 

found and lost together 

all times swirling

in a glorious wreath of the present

St. Augustine was right –

sometimes God

makes a hole in Heaven,

for us to peek in

© 2000 by Maja Trochimczyk

Ellenai 6

with the noise

of unfurling wings

silence descended

turmoil within

my frightened self

dissolved

into the glass surface

of tranquil seas

at sunset

angels account for

moments such as these

love’s cruel sweetness

my days are numbered

I’m caught again

emptied

of thought and sorrow

poured

into the last vessel

of midnight calm

(c) 2001  by Maja Trochimczyk

Mira Mataric, Susan Dobay, Rick Wilson, Kathabela Wilson at Scenic Drive Gallery

The opening reception of my exhibition "Shadows - Leaves- Roses" featured a poetry reading with the accompaniment of Rick Wilson on fujara (bass flute from Slovakia) and shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute), divided into two parts: "Shadows and Leaves" and "The Geometry of Roses." Jean Sudbury provided an interlude between the two poetry presentations with her violin transcriptions of pieces by Chopin, Dvorak and Elgar.   Mira Mataric read her translation of "Memento Vitae" - a poem that is a subject of an international translation project and already appeared in Spanish, French, Polish and Serbian versions. The attendees enjoyed the show and the reception, thanks to the hospitality of Susan and Endre Dobay.

The exhibition;s program features the following explanation:

"The play of light and shadows, reflections on the water, miraculous shapes of rose petals, the veins on a leaf… This exhibit presents a close-up view of California landscapes – limited to the elemental shapes and colors found on a yucca flower, or a petal. These wonders are found in Sunland and Tujunga, distant from the urban core of Los Angeles, yet a vital part of the metropolis. The profusion of gardens and wildlife areas permeated with intense sunlight transform these small towns into places of magic – captured with a digital camera."

For the record, I admit to being influenced by Georgia O'Keefe and her monumental, sensual flowers. Yet, I want my roses to be just right, not too big, not too small, something to enjoy in my home or office. Something simple that's all around us, and taken for granted... yet, incredibly, intensely beautiful.

                         

An interview with Susan Dobay about my artistic interests is on YouTube: http://youtu.be/nY7cp-taPbs

The exhibition is on display, available by appointment only, until September 22, 2013 at the Scenic Drive Gallery, 125 Scenic Drive, Monrovia, CA (off Myrtle, exit from 210 go up towards the mountains, turn left into Scenic when the road starts to turn. scenicdrivegallery.com

 

Reading love poems for roses, all red.

Jean Sudbury's performance at the opening of the exhibition.

Shadows - Leaves - Roses Photography Exhibition in Monrovia, September 1-23, 2013

SHADOWS - LEAVES - ROSES

PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT BY MAJA TROCHIMCZYK

SCENIC DRIVE GALLERY, MONROVIA, SEPTEMBER 1 – 23, 2013, OPENING RECEPTION: SEPTEMBER 1, 2013, 4-6 PM. 125 W. Scenic Dr. Monrovia California, 91016.  www.trochimczyk.net  www.scenicdrivegallery.com

The play of light and shadows, reflections on the water, miraculous shapes of rose petals, the veins on a leaf… This exhibit presents a close-up view of California landscapes – limited to the elemental shapes and colors found on one petal, a yucca flower, or a leaf. These wonders are found in Sunland and Tujunga, distant from the urban core of Los Angeles, yet a vital part of the metropolis. The profusion of gardens and wildlife areas permeated with intense sunlight transform these small towns into places of magic – their charms captured with a digital camera.

Maja Trochimczyk, Ph.D. is a poet, music historian and non-profit director, who takes pictures of what she likes to see in her neighborhood in California. An author of four books on music and four volumes of poetry, Maja is a recipient of many prizes, including honors from the City and County of Los Angeles and Poland’s Ministry of Culture. Her photographs previously appeared in PoeticDiversity, The Houston Literary Review, Epiphany Magazine, Polish Music Journal, and books by Moonrise Press. She participated in two group art shows: at the Scenic Drive Gallery in 2011 (“Poets –Artists” Exhibition) and at the Colburn School of Music (KRAK Art Group music photo exhibition associated with the American Paderewski Piano Competition in May 2013). This is her first solo photography exhibit, which will be accompanied by a reading of her garden-and-rose themed poems during the opening reception on September 1, 2013.

MAJA ABOUT THE INSPIRATION FOR THIS EXHIBITION:

A poet and music historian, I like to share the delights I experience every day in my new life in California (after almost 20 years, still "new"). This sense of bewilderment with life and nature is shared by children and convalescents. I once saw an older, frail woman shuffling along the sidewalk, with a hospital pallor still marking her face. . . She glowed with childlike wonder, admiring everything she saw. "Look at this leaf" - she said to me, "Isn't it amazing? Everything is so beautiful today..."

 My first solo exhibition features a selection of thousands of pictures taken in response to this admonition.... "look at this leaf..." I also look at the play of light and shadow, the reflections on the water, and the miraculous shapes of petals of my roses. Sometimes, I write poems about what I see and the Opening Reception will feature some of my poems, especially those inspired by roses, and the love that they carry in their multi-petaled hearts. 

With a simple digital camera I take pictures of what I like to see in my neighborhood in California. An online journal, PoeticDiversity made me the Artist in Residence in their August 2009 issue. Photographs of roses appeared in the Epiphany Magazine, No. 16, October 2012 and in The Houston Literary Review, June 2009 visual arts issue. I participated in two group art shows, at the Scenic Drive Gallery in 2011 (Poets -Artists) and at the Colburn School of Music (associated with the American Paderewski Piano Competition in May 2013). 

I used my photos as illustrations in my poetry books, Rose Always and Miriam's Iris, published by Moonrise Press. I also designed all the Moonrise Press covers, often featuring my own photographs.

    

 A Study of Leaves, Descanso Gardens, 2012 

 Sunland Seasons in 30 Photos, Autumn 2009 

 Rose and Roses in 48 Photos, October 2010 

 Artist in Residence at Poetic Diversity, 2009 

Nature photography also livens up my online chapbooks, Poems and Stories, Glorias and Assorted Praises, and Poems for my Friend. My news photography of charity and music events have appeared in various papers and newsletters in the U.S. and Poland. But my favorites are roses... 

ROSE WINDOW

I place you in the heart of my rose, dark red one,
with dew drops on its leaves.
Like a tricked-up baby
from Ann Geddes' postcard
you rest, snugly wrapped
in the comfort of my love.
"That too shall pass," they say,
"That too shall pass.
The rose will wither,
love will fade away."

Respectfully, I disagree.
I know the symmetry
of velvet petals
is but an opening
into a different universe,
a cosmic window,
timeless.
I see it in the shyness
of your smile. Yes.
You are that lucky.
In the morning
when the curtains of mist
open above silver hills
carved from time
like a Japanese woodcut,
you taste freedom.
You found your true self
under the detritus
of disordered life.
Isn't it strange
that you've been saved
by the perfection
of just one rose?

http://www.moonrisepress.com/rosealways.html

On Henry Brant's Music Stand and Summer Diversions

In the spring of 2004, I drove to Santa Barbara every week with a tape-recorder to interview Henry Brant (b. 1913, d. 2008), one of the most original “mavericks” of American concert music.  Henry had just won the Pulitzer Prize for his monumental orchestral composition, Ice Field, premiered in 2001 in San Francisco with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation and Other Minds Festival (with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting). 

The Ice Field, for 100 musicians dispersed throughout the concert hall, from the stage to the top balconies, was inspired, like so many Brant’s pieces, by an apocalyptic, violent environmental event, the breaking of the ice field. He also wrote music about hurricanes, meteor showers, waterfalls, sun spots, and the destruction of rainforest.

The Ice Field is made of clashing layers and eruptions of sound from many directions. In the words of the composer,  the piece features: “extreme high register outbursts, extreme low register volcanic suggestions, melismas both sustained and jagged, spatial textures of polyphonically dense complication, and sections of unmistakably jazz character presented in harmonically strident contexts…” I spent a fair number of years studying Brant’s unique spatial music among other approaches to connecting music and space.  

Brant loved the music of Charles Ives (1974-1954), a pioneer life-insurance-salesman-turned-composer (or vice versa) whose “Unanswered Question” (1906) is a 20th century classic, and “The Fourth of July” should be in every American home. Is it? I was amazed after moving here that my American students have never heard of Ives. Who heard of Brant in his centennial year?  I learned about Ives and Brant in Poland.  

My home country’s Parliament declared 2013 to be the year of composer Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994), and his centenary was celebrated around the world, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Alas, the U.S. Congress did not declare 2013 the Henry Brant Year.

Kathy Wilkowski and Joel Hunt with Brant's materials. Photo by Maja Trochimczyk

My book of interviews will be among very few commemorations of Brant’s unique and visionary talent. Emerging Brant scholar, music theorist and saxophone player Joel Hunt will transcribe them.  The details of life and music will be thoroughly reviewed by Kathy Wilkowski, the composer's dedicated widow, who finally finished cataloging his works before shipping the manuscripts and documents off to the Sacher Stiftung in Basel... Yes, a book will definitely be lots of fun.

I have not written any poems about Brant yet, though the old music stand with Brant’s German inscription is begging for some verse (a gift from his widow, Kathy Wilkowski).  Let me try...

Maja Trochimczyk with Kathy Wilkowski and
 the Music  Stand. Photo by Joel Hunt.

The Music Stand

~ for Henry Brant, in memoriam and for Kathy Wilkowski

(c) 2013 by Maja Trochimczyk

Three ornate cast-iron legs

Dark, polished wood inscribed in German

Luften! Nicht Schleppen!

The faint red ink of the composer's warning 

Fades away, erased by death, melting into 

Timelessness - Lift! Do not Drag!

It stands in the corner, beneath a portrait 

Of a lady in an intricate golden frame. How do they

Bear surviving? Oh, the mindless cruelty of things!

Lift your eyes, child, when you speak to me.

Don't drag your feet. You'll wear out your shoes 

And who's going to pay for them to be fixed?

Do not drag me into this sorry affair
You are too good for that! Sing, sing, 
Sing along! Lift your spirit up to heaven!

Who knows what the music stand has heard? 

Who gave a German name to this antique wood?

Lifted before and after the rehearsals

In the most unlikely places - the top balcony, 
On the stage, between the aisles, under 
The maple tree in the courtyard

On the roof, by the pond - music transcends 

Space, weaving distant streams into a tapestry

Of sound and whimsy, crashing icebergs

Fountains and volcanoes. Here, four boats 

Of flutists float along the river Amstel, 

Under the din of Amsterdam's carillons 

There, a South-Indian trio, with a jazz band 

Gamelan, and Caribean steel drums. Don't forget 

A hundred trombones orbiting in a circle

A hundred guitars strumming an elegy 

For the rosewood trees killed to make them

They died in the rain-forest that will not grow back

Luften! Nicht Schleppen! Look up to the sky

Catch your vermilion days in a lucid net 
of notes, words - found, scribbled, counted

Lift! Do not Drag! Keep your spirits high

with the Angels and Devils, Verticals Ascending

Instant Music and Unanswered Dreams

Mojave Valley Yucca, Photo by Maja Trochimczyk

_____________________________________________________________________________

Not to get overwhelmed with existential and environmental drama, I wrote a rhapsody on the flavors of summer.  The flavors of past summers in Poland, mixed in with intense, fragrant summers of Southern California. 

Mojave Valley Yucca. Photo by Maja Trochimczyk

The Flavors of Summer

(c) 2013 by Maja Trochimczyk

Pink clouds of raspberry sorbet float in
A large bowl of cherry soda at the museum.
“The signature recipe of my Grandma”
She offers, “the taste of my childhood.”
Not my flavor, not my taste.

The cold sweetness fizzles on my tongue
In the idyllic country of Ramona, the siren
Of almond blossoms and winter sunshine,
The tragic heroine from pages of an old romance,
And a tourist attraction, rolled in one.

Foreign story, distant times.  I long for
Hand-picked cherries bursting with delight
While my bare legs dangled from the tree branch.
I dream of my mom’s famous zupa nic, soup nothing –
Egg-white clouds frozen in a yellow yolk sky.

I see scarlet droplets scattered in a forest clearing
Wild strawberries hiding under fern fronds
Discovered in a burst of sunlight, bittersweet
Treasure preserved in small jars of confiture –
A teaspoon for each dark night of winter.

Bittersweet grapefruit ripens on my tree
Pink juice wells up under sunny yellow skin.
Birds got to the apricots before I did, leaving
A memorial of round holes in soft orange fuzz.
I find comfort in the scent of lavender and rosemary.

The dangerous whir of hornets (run if you hear one)
Morphed into a low din of bejeweled hummingbirds
Bombing each other away from the sugar water
In a ruby feeder, among flowercups of mandevilla
And white star jasmine climbing the roof of my patio.

I let the grass grow tall in my backyard this July
To remember the orchard of my aunt, the juice
Of cherries and pears on my chin, angry circles
Of yellow-jackets that sting and sting again
Unlike noble honeybees, dying with honor.

My neighbors of immaculate lawns and pristine
Driveways look at the Slavic jungle with disdain
And a warning: “Beware of snakes. Rattlers are hiding
In your grass. They are thirsty. They come from the desert. 
Watch out for the snakes of California summer.”

 

 

As the readers may have noticed, the inspiration  for this poem came from attending a Ramona lecture by Dydia Delyser at the Bolton Hall Museum… Who heard of Ramona? A fictional heroine of a 19th century novel by Helen Hunt Jackson, an activist, Indian Affairs inspector (who in vain bombarded the Congress with documents and reports about abuse and injustices inflicted upon Native Americans).  Mrs. Jackson decided to fictionalize the many grim and tragic events from the history of Mission Indians that she described in her somber reports and books. 

Escodillo Museum, Ramona's Marriage Place in Old Town San Diego.

The end result, a tragic love story in a novel "Ramona," became an unofficial guide to Southern California for visitors by train and the automobile, and a myth. Charles Fletcher Lummis, D. W. Griffith, and other luminaries became fascinated by the story, that became the subject of three movies. The book itself had more than 300 editions and spawned a tourist industry, with Ramona-themed locations and attractions in Ventura, San Diego, and other counties.  In addition to the various places and companies named after Ramona, her story has survived the past 80 years in the town of Hemet that has held the annual Ramona Pageant in late April. 

I visited San Diego and stopped by the Casa de Estudillo in the Old Town Historic Park. The U-shaped house is filled with artefact from Californio life - the Spanish-themed house includes a small tribute to Ramona, the novel that saved the building, known as "Ramona's Marriage Place" to the book's readers and lovers.

___________________________________________________

Photos by Maja Trochimczyk, unless otherwise indicated.

On Irony and Love Songs with Grapefruit and Pomegranate

Some people… wrap themselves in a thick blanket of irony of sarcasm and greet every expression of sentiment or affection with a sneer. We’ve all seen our share of these tough guys and gals, who curse or ridicule every expression of what really matters. “How banal, how boring!” they say, when they hear a sweet love poem, like the one below (first published in the Emerging Urban Poets 2010 Calendar). I remember, I was like that, too, deeply wounded and hiding my pain under a mask of worldly indifference. There was no hope, no future, only the reward for work done in the present. All love declarations I heard were a gigantic lie. The Universe was wrong, all around me. We lived in Hell. Or so I thought.  In my new life vision the Hell part has been upgraded to the level of Purgatory, the place of atonement, relentless testing, endless life exams. Yet, there is hope, there is love, and there are glimpses of Heaven.

The concept of “irony” (from the Greek term εἰρωνεία eirōneía, “pretended ignorance”) is a great invention of romantic heroes, starting from Lord Byron, who protected their vulnerability with an armor of disaffection, finding themselves alienated from the whole world. It still is a useful literary device, but why is it wrong to be ironic in life? To spend your life so well armored, that no real emotion may pierce it? That’s exactly why. This separation from others, this distance, alienation, is the plunge of the soul into the emptiness of a spiritual void. Ugly things become possible: indifference, cruelty, unwillingness to help others, to care for anyone at all, but your own career goals or physical comfort. 

I was going to say I “hate” irony but that’s not true, I do not hate anything, nor anyone. I have pity instead. I consciously cultivate in myself an ability to be filled with love and compassion for everyone. (Do I fail in that? Of course, but it is not giving up that matters…) The moral choice of refusing to be ironic, in life or art, may have unpleasant consequences. Some “real” poets would think me silly, and my love poetry sappy and trite, as I happily write a next sweet line while listening to the rich mezzosoprano of Patsy Cline or Ella Fitzgerald, warm as liquid honey: “I’ll be loving you… always… with the love that’s true… always….” 

These words were once addressed to a real person, just as my encounter in the garden really happened… but I don’t think we need to know such details, to feel refreshed and nourished by love.

The bitter-sweet pink grapefruit and the baby pomegranates from my garden are a perfect illustration of our topic for today.

A Portrait in Brackets

               “… you promise eternity almost, from the embrace.”

                     Reiner Maria Rilke, The Second Elegy, Duino Elegies

I love every hair on your head

every wrinkle, the round scar

in the middle of your forehead

like Cain’s mark – you are

the chosen one, the untouchable

The little freckles on your nose

shine – endearing, childlike

It was supposed to be

summertime when they came

Here’s summer all the time, already

My love stirs for your full, half-open lips

waiting for my kisses, as I caress

the sharp contours of your cheeks –

I hold them in my cupped hands

looking straight into your eyes

There is no world

only us and the birdsong

at noon in my garden

I love the quiet confidence

of your fingers, skillful hands

like my father’s – solid, able

to fix things, take care of me

I touch your skin, tracing a line

down the nose, soft lips, and chin

I brush against the prickles

of your goatee, before reaching

a sweet spot on your neck

Below your shoulders, under

the smoothness of hard muscles

the bell of your heart welcomes me

The blood sings in your veins, love

surges towards me – I do I do I do

I rest my head on your chest

and listen to your heart

that beats and beats and never

stops playing the music 

© 2009 by Maja Trochimczyk. Published in 2010 Calendar, Emerging Urban Poets, Pasadena.

A Lesson for My Daughter

After a ruby-colored glass of Merlot

I told my daughter the secret of the Universe.

I solved it at noon, by the river

Questions, as I thought, do not matter

The right answers to life are “Yes”

And “I Love You”

If you build a circle of “Yes” all around

Affirming who you really are

You will be safe

If you say “I Love You” to everyone

near you –  very quietly, so they can’t hear

but you know

You will walk in a sphere of gladness

That no insult or curse

May pierce

You will find yourself hidden deeply

Where love blossoms, laughter bubbles

And joy overflows

© 2006 by Maja Trochimczyk 

____________________________________________________________

This article and two poems are published in the June issue of The Voice of the Village.

Photos from my garden - grapefruit and pomegranate.

The Spring with Birds and Susan Dobay's Art from China

April showers, May flowers... and birdsong. During the Village Poets reading at the La Crescenta Library, my fellow poets formed a chorus of birds, using children's toys from Poland - little bird sculptures that are half-filled with water and whistle like birds. These poetic birds provided a background and refrains to my poem, inspired by Susan Dobay's painting, "Musicscape 12" - the same painting was also featured at the "Co-Inspirators" reading at Pasadena Public Library, organized by Rey R. Luminarias.

Reading with Musicscape 12, Scenic Drive Gallery in Monrovia, 2012

See, how we dance?

~ inspired by Susan Dobay's "Musicscape  12"

Simon says – “grow”
and our roots reach for water
our branches for the sun

Simon says – “blossom”
and our pink petals open
in a gold mist of newness

 Simon says – “sing”
and we let the breeze whisper
with hummingbirds, jewels, leaves

 Simon says – “fly”
and we turn and turn again
in swirling clouds, voiceless music, dancing

This poem is published in Poets on Site's anthology, "On Awakening" edited by Kathabela Wilson (Pasadena, 2012),  and on display at the LitFest on May 11, 2013 (10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pasadena’s Central Park. 275 South Raymond Avenue). For schedule. http://litfestpasadena.org/ The LitFest will feature panels, readings, performances... You will meet Kathabela and Poets on Site. You will be able to paint a poem on Just Kibbe's car...

At the Pasadena LitFest 2012 with Kathabela Wilson

The month of May, honored by so many poets as the month of love and romance, is not considered a good month to be married in. Apparently, the romance of May is short-lived; for the marriage to survive you have to tie the knot in June or September!

While reading an exceedingly bizarre treatise by a 19th century Swedish mystic, Swedenborg, I was struck by his vision of Heaven in which eight-limbed creatures float by; these creatures consist of couples that found their perfect match and are blended into one being while the ones that are still single frantically search for their better half. How far do you have to go to find an ideal person to share your life with?

Sometimes very far, sometimes you’ll meet that person in high school or earlier. The partners in one of the best marriages I know met in seventh grade Another happily married octogenarian admitted that every day she feels a flush of joy when she hears the key turning in the lock when her husband comes home. Her friends who long ago stopped talking to their husbands and are now living in a marriage of “suspended animation” or a “permanent truce” laugh at her “silly infatuation,” but, she says, it took years of hard work to get there. Someone else said that the secret to a happy marriage is “compromise” – how distant from romantic love! How close to the “arranged marriage” of so many cultures!

Arranged or not, each culture has different wedding customs. For instance, in China, the bride’s traditional shoes, veil and other wedding clothes and symbols were red (red is also used in India). There even was a special calligraphy symbol of “Double Happiness” that decorated wedding gifts, to bring joy and happiness to the newly-wed couple. What would happen if you leave that tradition behind?

 During her trip to China, Hungarian American artist Susan Dobay saw a bewildered looking Chinese bride in a white, Western-style dress and used the picture in her artwork, called Bride on the Rock. This image gave rise to my poem and here it is…

Vision, Unveiled


“Why are you leaving us?”
Chinese characters dissipate in the air

Clouds descend
Down the waterfall of jade

Clouds float down
The slopes of aquamarine

“Where are you going?
Why are you doing this?”

Centuries of crystal
Petrified traditions stand silent

Watching over
The white tulle of a Cinderella dress

The dark-haired bride
Is anxious without her talisman

Lost without the red hue
Of prosperity, crimson joy she hides

The sign of double happiness
Marked in blood-red ink

 Under the pristine silk
 Of her bridal gown

They cannot see – she listens
To the whisper of the crevices

Her veil flutters
On the breeze


© 2013 by Maja Trochimczyk




Since the path of the bride took her away from her roots in Chinese tradition, I decided to add a poem about a young girl who went in the opposite direction – towards the wisdom of her ancestors, symbolized by learning to count in Chinese. It is important to find a balance between staying connected to tradition, and making a new place for yourself in the world. Sometimes it takes a lifetime…just like a good marriage.

A Skipping Lesson 

One Two Three 
En Deux Troix 
Ein Zwei Drei 

she learned to count
like the foreigners
do

she skips up the steps
and stops at the top

attentive

she listens to stories
of her ancestors
deep within
her veins

Yee Uhr Sahn 
Suh Woo Lyo 

blood circling
from her heart
to her breath

tomorrow

she'll learn to count
all the bright red hats
on the way through
the city

in Chinese

Yee Uhr Sahn 
Suh Woo Lyo 
Chee Bah Jyo 
Shi 


(c) 2013 by Maja Trochimczyk
“A Skipping Lesson” was published in Quill and Parchment, March 2013.

The three stages of life - childhood, adulthood, maturity receive different degrees of attention in  Western society.  Our gaze stops at the peak, the bride at the summit, the young man at the top of his prowess. We look in fondness at children, give too much attention to adolescence as a distinct and different stage in life (replete with its own, highly commercialized culture), and tend to devalue the wisdom of age.  "What creature walks on four legs, then on two, then on three?" Asked the Sphinx? The answer - a human being, crawling, walking and shuffling along with a cane...

A friend of mine, in her mid sixties, complained with exasperation how she hates being patronized by people in public spaces, ignored, disrespected, belittled, like a child. "And hare we today, dearie..." "Aren't we flustered..."  She's talked down to by silly teenagers, shop attendants, nurses, as if she were already senile, useless... In China, the ancestors are revered, Confucianism places a premium on proper respect and obedience to the elders. The wisdom of the elders is also recognized in Native American traditions. Tbe women's wisdom is the key to survival, endurance, no matter what. Sometimes very hard, sometimes it is the only way.

My third poem from the "Women's Trilogy inspired by Susan Dobay" deals with the wisdom that old women share with the youngsters. If you learn, you will survive, if not, you will become a forgotten part of history, that little corner that someone might once discover, for it was not written by victors and is of little import on the public stage. This poem is published in the current issue of The Statement Magazine, a literary journal of California State University at Los Angeles. Come to the publication party on May 16, 2013 at 6:30 p.m. in the Golden Eagle Ballroom of CSULA.

... Too Bold 

The ancestors’ weight heavy on their shoulders
The ages’ wisdom embroidered on their skin

 Bend down, bend down 
 You will not be broken 

Tall stems of rice bow low before the wind
Slide through the onslaught, a sudden surge of war

Young mothers whisper silence to their daughters
Girls watch, repeat the gestures of their kin

Bend down, bend down 
You will not be broken 

You have to learn the art of disappearing
Invisible, you will outlive the strangest times

Be still, be patient, breathe the longest hours
You have to do it all and remain unseen

Women alone survived in our village
Into the river silver tears have flown

Bend down, bend down 
You will not be broken 

Bend down, bend down 
You will not…


 © 2013 by Maja Trochimczyk
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