Seven Seasons: Collected Poems

Detelina Stoykova-Asenov is an educator, writer and a psychoanalyst residing in New Jersey. She had been a journalist and a TV and radio reporter. Her scholarly articles were published in specialized literature in her native Bulgaria and in the US.

Detelina’s poetry shelters meaning beyond the scopes of the known, where the mind is bent toward nature; not in order to think, but to feel. In this way, Detelina has become so free that she is able to express and make confessions through love. This is poetry of the internal being, where the words do not die off in conflicts. The ocean is best contemplated through the shore, the rain makes the space intimate, and when she felt the maturity of her pen, she turns toward the smiling childhood of her memories… She lives where she dreams, and in her reality, she keeps the dream of the words, to put them in metaphors beyond words into the gold of silence.

— Dr. R. Radev, University of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria.

Detelina Stoykova’s poetic sensibility spans from the expanse of visions in nature to the visceral passions of tango. She highlights the visceral and emotional intimacies provoked by the dance. Yet she also exposes the vulnerability of longing and the nature of desire as she engages in the reciprocal responsiveness of mind-in-body in tango “conversations,” and navigates the intimate space of dancing. Her poetry allows us to sense the rhythm of self and other as object relations dynamics that palpitate through the dance, and which are contained in the embrace as a phenomenon of connectedness.

— Dr. Susan Kavaler-Adler, Founder and Executive Director of the Object Relations Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis (NYC), author of six books and over seventy peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and tanguera

A collection of romantic poems for people who think they do not like poetry. Emotions are raw and visceral, reality is juxtaposed with the ephemeral. There is a reaching out to touch what cannot be felt but through the heart. Passion is continual with longing and love. You will not have to study this collection, you will feel it. It is uncomplicated with no hidden meaning or esoteric lines. It is about love and desire, about love and being cared for and protected. It is for romantics and those that dream of such connections in their lives. And yet Stoykova-Asenov reminds us in the last lines of her poem HEART LEFT BEHIND: “Don’t be gone for long – The heart left alone will wander.” This little book will be read many times over. Illustrated with gorgeous drawings of men and women. Any one of which could be framed and appreciated daily.

— R. M. Karp

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE (xiii)

I. REFLECTIONS

CONTEMPLATION (3)
REFLECTION (6)
LIVING AT THE SHORE (7)
NIGHT CREATURES (8)
COMPASS (9)
MEMORY OF CHRISTMAS (10)
UNDONE (10)
HEAVENLY SILKWORM (11)

II. MINIATURES AND HAIKU
FROM THE SHORE

CIRCLE (15)
THE OCEAN’S LIKE A LAKE TODAY (16) SPRING CLEAN (16)
ONCE IN A WHILE (17)
ROSE (17)
I WISH THE MORNING LASTED LONGER (17) MEETING (18)
WHEREVER WE GO THERE IT IS (18)
THE SUN PATH (19)
MORNING (19)
AT THE JETTY (19)
LAUGHING BUDDHA (20)
DARK PERFUME (20)
NOT THERE (20)
FREEDOM IS (21)
AT THE PERIMETER (21)
SURRENDER I (22)
SURRENDER II (22)
INDIAN SUMMER (23)
THRONE(23)
BLOSSOMS (23)
SPRING OCEAN (24)
WARM ROCKS (24)
TEMPLE (24)
ANCIENT MEMORY (25)
LIMPING SEAGULL (25)
SHARE THE ROCKS (25) LIGHTHEARTED (25)
THE SCENT OF THE BEACH (26) LAZY AFTERNOON (26)
JEWELED SUNRISE (26)
WHEN AT THE OCEAN (27)
BLUE IRISES (27)

III. TO MY LOVED

PASSION (31)
DEAR BEAR (32)
A STAR IS BORN (33)
A DAY OF LOVE (34)
THE RAIN IS FALLING (35) KALEIDOSCOPE (36)
CHEST COLD (38)
I AM YOUR TOWN (38)
MONDAY SONG (39)
DUET (40)
THE POEMS I’VE GIVEN AW A Y ( 41) TEN BALLOONS (42)
TO MY MOM (43)
HEART LEFT BEHIND (45)
TELL THEM ( 46)

IV. NEW ROMANTICS

POETRY CORNER (49)
LOVE IS … (50)
IS IT AN ANCIENT INCANTATION? (50) TANGO IS (51)
TO THE TANGO LESSON (52)
MORNING RHYTHM (53)
I SEE SADNESS IN HIS EYES (55)
CORAZON (56)
AFTER THE TAKEN (57)
PLEA (58)
LOVE IS ONLY FOR THE BRA VE (59)
PORTRAIT (60)
NO HIDING IN THAT ONE (61)
IN THE EMBRACE (62)
NIGHT SONG (63)
SAY WHAT YOU WILL (64)
POT OF MILK (65)

V.ODES

ODE ABOUT AN OLD CROW (69)
LITTLE BEIGE PANT (71)
THE DAY IS LONG (74)

VI.DREAMS

DREAM I(83)
DREAM II (84)
A DREAM IN FILM NOIR (85)

VII. TRANSLATED POEMS

I LOVED YOU, BY ALEXANDER PUSHKIN (89) PRAYER, BY MIKHAIL LERMONTOV (90)
SONG OF MY SONG, BY PEYO YA VOROV (91)
TWO BEAUTIFUL EYES, BY PEYO YA VOROV (94) TWO SOULS, BY PEYO YA VOROV (95)
TO LORA, BY PEYO YA VOROV (96)
GAZE TOW ARD THE STARS, BY ILIY A STOYKOV (97)

APPENDIX

LIST OF DRAWINGS (101)
NOTES ON POEMS AND TRANSLATIONS (101) ABOUT THE AUTHOR (103)

Click on book cover to preview this book

• Google Books