Bücher von Maja Trochimczyk

Edited by Maja Trochimczyk, and illustrated with paintings by Ambika Talwar, the "Crystal Fire" anthology gathers poems of joy and wisdom by 12 poets, 8 women and 4 men: El¿bieta Czajkowska, Joe DeCenzo, Mary Elliott, Jeff Graham, Marlene Hitt, Frederick Livingston, Alice Pero, Allegra Silberstein, Jane Stuart, Ambika Talwar, Bory Thach, and Maja Trochimczyk. The poets span all ages and diverse life experiences. They include émigrés from Poland, Cambodia, and India, and those born in the U.S. College professors join community poets. Native speakers appear alongside those for whom English is the second, or even the third language. The "joy and wisdom" they write about are also different, as each poet follows their own path and gathers unique reflections to share with their readers.The phrase of "Crystal Fire" may be seen as the symbol of all humanity, with each person born from the union of man and woman, the male and female DNA strands interlocking in ever new patterns to create human beings. In this phrase, "Crystal" stands for the feminine and "Fire" for the masculine. "Crystal" is peaceful, somewhat static, but well-constructed, stable, and growing slowly into perfection. It is the cosmos of order and being. Remember, only women give birth (though some want to construct artificial wombs and detach humanity from its roots). In contrast, "Fire" is dynamic, sometimes intensely dramatic, always changing, always transforming, constantly in the state of flux. It is the energy of change and growth. It is also destructive, demolishing solid structures of the past to make room for the new. "Fire" means destruction and becoming. It is pure chaos. The Universe arises from the dance of these twin forces, like yin and yang, but neither is pure darkness, negative and "evil" and neither is pure light, positive, and "good." Instead, they are the ageless vortex of cosmic unity and chaos, of creation and destruction. There is no value assigned to this polarity, for such labels are limiting and deceptive. Both aspects are essential, each cannot exist without its twin. Both are good AND evil, both are positive AND negative. "Good and positive" when coupled with the other. "Evil and negative" when alone. These are the polar opposites of stagnation and decline-or constant movement and the total destruction of all life. The feminine elements of "earth" and "water" endlessly dance with the masculine elements of "air" and "fire."

This is an abridged reprint in gender-neutral language of a 19th century translation of "Ethica Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata" by Benedict de Spinoza (Baruch Spinoza, 1632-1677) first published in 1677. The 1883 translation by William Hale White (1831-1913), was rendered gender-neutral by Dr. Maja Trochimczyk. This second volume of Moonrise Press's Classic Wisdom Book Series, consists of five parts: I. Of God; II. Of The Nature and Origin of the Mind, III. Of The Origin and Nature of the Affects; IV. Of Human Bondage, or of the Strength of the Affects. And V. Of The Power of the Intellect, or Of Human Liberty. Born in a Jewish-Portuguese family in Amsterdam in 1621, at 23, Spinoza was expelled from the Jewish community and is buried in a Christian church in The Hague (he died at 44, in 1677). He was neither Jewish nor Christian in his views, and, from today's perspective may be called one of the Classics of Awakened Wisdom, aware of the intrinsic unity of the Universe with God, the Source of all.

This volume brings together a series of essays on some of the less known aspects of music culture in Poland in the 19th century. Eight studies are presented chronologically, including such topics as: careers of women composers, Karol Lipinski's concert tours and violins, Henryk Wieniawski, Polish reception of Wagner, images of composers by Polish music critics, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, and Feliks Nowowiejski. Authors, based in Poland, Germany and the U.S. include eminent scholars specializing in Polish music of the 19th and 20th centuries: Magdalena Dziadek, Maria Zduniak, Martina Homma, Krzysztof Rottermund, Krzysztof Szatrawski, and Maja Trochimczyk.

The Rainy Bread: More Poems from Exile presents 63 poems about forgotten stories of Poles living under the Soviet and German occupation during WWII, especially in the Eastern Borderlands or "Kresy." They were killed, deported, imprisoned, or starved after the invasion of Poland by the Soviet Union on September 17, 1939. Some of these brief portraits capture the trauma, resilience, ordeals, and miraculous survival stories of the author's immediate family. Their experiences of displacement, hunger, cold, and poverty during the war are typical of Polish civilians. These fictionalized memories are coupled with depictions of survival of other Poles deported to Siberia, the Arctic Circle, or Kazakhstan; those left the Soviet Union with the Second Corps of the Polish Army under the command of General W¿adys¿aw Anders; those who were transported to refugee camps in India or Africa; and ended up in Argentina, Canada, Australia or the U.S. The book is an expanded edition of The Rainy Bread: Poems from Exile (2016) and a companion to Slicing the Bread (2014). Organized into six parts - Destinations, Nowhere, Hunger Years, Resilience, There and Back, What Remains - the updated book follows a trajectory of descent into hell of deportations, imprisonment, hunger, mass murder, and the ascent into resilience and survival. At the end, the dark rain of sorrow changes into the diamond rain of delight, as life triumphs over death, love over fear.Maja Trochimczyk, Ph.D., is a Polish American poet, music historian, photographer, and author of seven books on music, most recently Górecki in Context: Essays on Music (2017) and Frédéric Chopin: A Research and Information Guide (co-edited with William Smialek, 2015). She currently serves as the President of the California State Poetry Society, managing editor of the California Quarterly, and the President of the Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club in Los Angeles, promoting Polish culture in California. Trochimczyk's nine books of poetry include Rose Always, Miriam's Iris, Slicing the Bread, Into Light, and four anthologies, Chopin with Cherries (2010), Meditations on Divine Names (2012), Grateful Conversations: A Poetry Anthology (2018) and We Are Here: Village Poets Anthology (2020).