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Publication Data:
ISBN 978-0-9819693-0-5 (paperback)
Published in February 2010
With a list of Chopin's works cited by the poets, the editor's introduction, and index. Includes 50 illustrations and portraits,
from vintage postcards of scenes from Chopin's life and death, and interpretations of his music. The PDF download features color illustrations. Order from lulu.com and major online booksellers.
 Paperback - $23.00
PDF download - $8.00
Description
This volume celebrates the 200th birth anniversary of Polish pianist-composer, Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849).
Ninety-one poets are represented here; they live in the U.S., England, France, Mexico, the Philippines and Poland - with family roots in Poland, Australia,
China, France, India, Italy, Malta, Mexico, the Philippines, Serbia, and other countries. The anthology includes more than
122 poems in English, and one important Polish poem, Cyprian Kamil Norwid's Fortepian Szopena, in a new English
translation by Leonard Kress (this is the first English translation of Norwid's masterpiece, considered too difficult
even by the translator of his entire oeuvre, Adam Czerniawski). English-language classics include verse by
T. S. Elliot, Emma Lazarus and Amy Lowell.
For the great German expatriate poet, Henrich Heine, who shared Parisian exile years with the composer,
Chopin was "the great genius tone-poet" (1837). The search for the "poetic" in Chopin's music
persisted over the years. Numerous poets dedicated their work to the "eternal eloquence, immortal pain"
(phrases from Emma Lazarus, 19th century) or "nothing but moonlight"
found in Chopin's music (a phrase from the composer's lover, writer George Sand). The latter expression was
cited by poets Milicent Borges Accardi and Susan Rogers in the current collection.
Chopin with Cherries brings together a variety of approaches and poetic forms, such as
free verse, letter-poems, villanelle, sonnet, rhymed poems in couplets, prose poetry, and tanka. Some poets write
about details from Chopin's life, women he loved, Wodzinska and Sand, as well as the circumstances of his
illnesses and death. Others focus on his music - on its meaning as a symbol
of fragile beauty in the modern world, or on the emotional impact of individual pieces. Nocturnes are particularly popular
as a genre (16 poems), but three miniatures attracted the greatest attention: the Prelude in D-flat Major, Op. 28, No. 15 "Raindrop"
(5 poems),
the Waltz in D-flat Major, Op. 64, No. 1 "Minute Waltz" (6 poems, including a cowboys' dance),
and the Waltz in A Minor, Op. Posthumous (4 poems).
Chopin is heard everywhere: in a Parisian church (Rick Lupert),
on the plains of North Dakota (Thom Tamarro), in Ohio (Donna L. Emerson), in his birthplace in Zelazowa Wola (Margaret C. Szumowski), and on the radio (Ryan McLellan).
Marian Shapiro considers the meaning of Chopin's art "as if each measure were a casual ripple in a spring stream of
melting centuries." Australian-born poet Katrin Talbot envisions Chopin's music as an accusation for our failures:"'Why didn't
you . . . ? Why did you . . . ?'" John Guzlowski writes about Chopin's music replacing traumatic memories of "the hollow
surge and dust of German tanks" ("A Good Death"). Ruth Nolan hears Chopin in the desert, "between the spaces of
darkness and sound, blown across the sand dunes into magnificence." Poets fondly remember playing or
listening to the music associated with their childhood, evoking moments of happiness and feelings
of nostalgia or loss (Trochimczyk's "A Study with Cherries" that
gave rise to the title of the collection).
List of Poets
The poets in Chopin with Cherries include: Millicent Borges Accardi, Austin Alexis,
Lucy Anderton, Sheila Black, George Bodmer, Lia Brooks, Kerri Buckley, Allison Campbell, Peggy Castro,
Sharon Chmielarz, Victor Contoski, Clark Crouch, Beata Pozniak Daniels, Jessica Day, Diane Shipley DeCillis,
Lori Desrosiers, Charlie Durrant, T. S. Eliot, David Ellis, Donna L. Emerson, Charles Ades Fishman,
Jennifer S. Flescher, Gretchen Fletcher, Linda Nemec Foster, Emily Fragos, Jarek Gajewski,
Helen Graziano, John Z. Guzlowski, Lola Haskins, Shayla Hawkins, Elizabyth A. Hiscox, Marlene Hitt,
Roxanne Hoffman, Laura L. Mays Hoopes, Ben Humphrey, Carol J. Jennings, Charlotte Jones, Lois P. Jones,
Georgia Jones-Davis, Christine Klocek-Lim, Jean L. Kreiling, Leonard Kress, Emma Lazarus, Marie Lecrivain,
Jeffrey Levine, Amy Lowell, R. Romea Luminarias, Rick Lupert, Radomir V. Luza, Mira N. Mataric,
Ryan McLellan, Anna Maria Mickiewicz, Elisabeth Murawski, Ruth Nolan, Cyprian Kamil Norwid,
Rosemary O'Hara, Dean Pasch, Nils Peterson, Richard Pflum, William Pillin, Kenneth Pobo, Carrie A. Purcell,
Marilyn N. Robertson, Susan Rogers, Alison Ross, Mary Rudge, Russell Salamon, Gabriel Shanks,
Marian Kaplun Shapiro, Joseph Somoza, Lusia Slomkowska, Kathi Stafford, Maxine R. Syjuco,
Fiona Sze-Lorrain, Margaret C. Szumowski, Katrin Talbot, Taoli-Ambika Talwar, Thom Tammaro, Mark Tardi,
Cheryl M. Thatt, Tammy L. Tillotson, Maja Trochimczyk, Helen Vandepeer, Devi Walders, Erika Wilk,
Martin Willitts, Jr., Kath Abela Wilson, Leonore Wilson, Meg Withers, Anne Harding Woodworth, and Marianne Worthington.
Events:
Concert of Romantic Music, Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA, Tuesday, Feburary 16, 2010, 7:30p.m. With Roza Yoder, Director.
Piano music performed by APU students. Readings from Chopin with Cherries by Maja Trochimczyk and local poets.
Location: Munson Recital Hall (MUNS), Munson Chapel, East Campus, Azusa Pacific University, 901 E. Alosta Ave.
Azusa, CA 91702. Free.
Poets at Azusa Pacific University's
"Fryderyk Chopin in Music and Poetry," February 16, 2010. Erika Wilk, Mira Mataric, Susan Rogers,
Taoli-Ambika Talwar and Maja Trochimczyk read their poems on February 16, 2010.
Bicentennial Chopin Celebration, Colburn School of Music, Los Angeles, CA, Saturday, February 27, 2010, 8 p.m. With eminent pianists John Perry, Wojciech Kocyan and actress Jane Kaczmarek
reading poems from Chopin with Cherries. Presented by the Paderewski Music Society and Helena Modjeska Polish Arts and Culture Club. All proceeds
will be used to support the first International Paderewski Piano Competition in California, May 2010. Tickets $25.00. More information
Location: Colburn School of Performing Arts, Zipper Concert Hall, 200 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012
3rd International Chopin Congress, Warsaw, Poland, February 25 - March 1, 2010. Congress organized by
Fryderyk Chopin Institute and the University of Warsaw. The official
presentation of the book during Maja Trochimczyk's paper "From 'Eternal Eloquence' to 'What Does he Know' - Images of Chopin in English-language Poetry." Free.
Location: University of Warsaw Old Library, Warszawa, ul. Krakowskie Przedmiescie 26/28, Poland.
Chopin with Cherries: Poetry and Music. McGroarty Art Center, Tujunga, CA, Sunday, April 11, 2010, 4 p.m. Reading by poets
from around the country with Chopin's music played by American pianist, Dr. Neal Galanter, and a polonaise dance lesson by a Polish dance expert. Suggested donation: $10.
Location: McGroarty Art Center, 7570 McGroarty Terrace, Tujunga, California 91042.
Chopin with Cherries: An Evening of Poetry and Music. Ruskin Art Club, Los Angeles, CA, Saturday, May 8, 2010, 7 p.m. Chopin recital
by eminent Polish pianist Dr. Wojciech Kocyan with readings by poets from around the country. Suggested donation: $10.
Location: Ruskin Art Club, 800 South Plymouth Avenue, Los Angeles, California, 90005.
Bilingual Edition of Chopin with Cherries. The second edition of the collection
will be bilingual and will include Polish translations by Polish-American poets: Leonard Kress, Maja Trochimczyk,
Janusz Zalewski, and others. Planned for December 2010.
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