The sweet sadness of Julie Brokken "bubbles like cream soda slowly sipped" in a tall glass of poetry this morning.  Happy Mothers Day!

Julie Brokken works out of her White Butterfly Studio in downtown Albuquerque's…

With one poem, Marilyn Stablein has managed to redefine a color that had a somewhat lonely, if not negative, place in my memory.  Blue brings a smile this morning.



Ms. Stablein is reading at…

Just about one year ago, Hakim Bellamy was selected as Albuquerque's first Poet Laureate. What an honor!  And what a responsibility.  How can a poet be such an active presence in the community and continue writing at the same time?  Somehow he's doing it...and brilliantly.  His first book of poems came out…

If any kind of poem seeks to crystallize the meaning of life itself, it is one that is written to a son or daughter.  As hard as that is, Gina Marselle sprinkles plenty of memorable images in the direction of her beautiful baby boy.

Ms. Marselle, "Wife. Mother. Teacher. Poet.…

Jessica Lopez draws me into her world with every line.  Writing with power, passion, and insight, she can leave the reader breathless.  You can hear Jessica Helen Lopez read for free next Sunday April 14th at the Tractor Brewing Co. in Nob Hill as part of the "I'll Drink To That" series. …

Have a vision for America?  Have a plan for you own life?  Does Grover Norquist intrude upon your quiet thoughts about what tomorrow might hold?  If you do nothing else this morning, read on.  Thanks to Zach Kluckman for the heads-up on Lauren Zuniga's coming to town and…

Despite this week’s cold snap, we have all been outside thinking about our gardens, worrying about those fruit trees, and glancing at the tangled hose half buried under the brown leaves out back.  Welcome to spring!  “Avoid bunnies,” adds the poet.



Merimee Moffitt lives in…

This morning Margaret Randall will be reading at Sunday Chatter (formerly Church of Beethoven).  You can hear her read "Cursive Writing..." in person.  I can…

Sit down for coffee with Nathan Brown and watch the people around you.  Ride along the Rio Grande with Cathy Arellano and wonder about your life as the sheriff comes into view.  Ah...Sundays.…

Maine poets Wil Gibson and Beau Williams rolled into town this weekend.  They read last night at One Night Only  which was staged at The Source on Carlisle Blvd in southeast Albuquerque.  Gibson claims Rockford, Illinois as a hometown.  As does another of…

Lyre Snakes are a mildly poisonous snake found throughout the southwest.  Named for the V-shaped marking on their head, they are not easily observed--being primarily nocturnal and living deep in rock crevices and canyon walls.  They are said to eat lizards, rodents, and even bats.



New Mexico…

I heard that sometime within the next five years, there will actually be more guns in the U.S. than people.  Is there no turning back?  Must we live with instant death forever?  How crass have we become?  Is there a tipping point?



Margaret Randall continues her work here in Nob Hill and…

Many, many people regard the Rio Grande valley as a holy place.  What does that mean?  Well, for one thing, it seems to draw a lot of people to it that imagine or re-imagine the essence of life on this earth.  This is seldom a matter of belief, rather an individual perception of what is, what flows, and what…

Yesterday, Rev. Jesse Jackson asked President Obama to come to Chicago.  The occasion?  Death by gunfire in the streets of Chicago, including that of a young woman who had participated in Obama's Inauguration festivities in Washington D.C.  In the U.S. 1280 people have been killed by guns just since last…

"It was during this time I hitched a ride to California and stopped in Bernalillo, New Mexico where I read in the Placitas Village newspaper "The Sign Post" of a new community forming, gathered around Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes, alternative communal housing. I decided to spend a few…

I heard Jim Burbank read this poem at Sunday Chatter a couple of weeks ago.  He literally brought down the house.  So relax, lean back, read on, and be confident that your Sunday morning includes a smile or two.



James C. Burbank is director of UNM's Professional Writing Internship…

This morning's poem is quintessential Rich Boucher:  smart, ironic, imaginative, kind…and yet filled with some sort of comedic horror.



Rich is featured this Wednesday, Jan. 16th, at the MAS Poetry Slam and Open Mic event at Winning Coffee Co., 111 Harvard SE.  It starts at 7:00.  Sign-up at 6:30. …

If our eyes were fast enough to read a coin as it flips in the air, the sides might read "Hello" and "Good-bye."  Yet, when it comes to the lives of people around us, this perspective is hard to come by.  How is it that a teenager can express it so well?



Jude Marx is a 16-year-old high school junior at…

If America's songwriters were poets they might have been lucky enough to write this moving piece.  Instead, they had to content themselves with It Ain't Me Babe and Don't Fence Me In.  Life is complicated, and this winding piece finds its mark in line after line.



Katrina Guarascio reads this…