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The DitchRider's Blog (224)

The Sunday Poem: Amy Beeder... The Charges Are Stalking & Arson

All poets are dangerous, but this poet is explosive. "Powder speaks; dirt is mute." I'm starting to feel uncomfortable.

Amy Beeder is the author of Burn the Field (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2006). Her poems have appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, AGNI, Poetry Daily, and The Nation, among other journals. She teaches poetry at the University of New Mexico.

The Charges Are… Continue

Added by The DitchRider on December 27, 2009 at 8:00am — 5 Comments

The Sunday Poem: Maria Leyba... Las Madrecitas

Maria L. Leyba was born in The Women & Children's Hospital that once stood on Central & High. She was raised in Barelas where she still resides in her childhood home with her husband, Jerry. Presently she teaches preschool at A Child's Garden. She was born into a Mexican family of weavers & storytellers & has been writing all her life.

Las Madrecitas

Keep rising

lighting fires in

cold… Continue

Added by The DitchRider on December 20, 2009 at 8:00am — 7 Comments

The Sunday Poem: Zach Kluckman... The Lion in G

She’s turning Debussy in G

into a sensual arrival of moments

What wonderful lines from The Lion in G! But Kluckman's poem is itself a "sensual arrival of moments." So much so that I have appended a 1940 recording of Debussy's Quartet in G Minor, as a sort of sensual dessert for this Sunday morning delight.

Zach Kluckman's anthology of New Mexican poets, Earthships: A New Mecca Poetry Collection, was a finalist… Continue

Added by The DitchRider on December 13, 2009 at 7:00am — 9 Comments

The Sunday Poem: Kenneth P. Gurney... Fluid Shape of an Empty Womb

Many of us have lost track of the Oracle of Delphi these last 3000 years. That doesn't mean she's been quiet. Historically she was consulted before all major decisions, like going to war.

Kenneth P. Gurney lives in Albuquerque, NM. His work appears mostly on the web as he spends SASE and reading fee dollars on flowers for his lover. To learn more about Kenneth, visit… Continue

Added by The DitchRider on December 6, 2009 at 7:27am — 6 Comments

The Sunday Poem: Jessica Lopez... Custody

It is a nicer restaurant: tablecloths & steak knives. Over in the corner, a couple and their daughter sit quietly.

Jessica Helen Lopez is a Poetry and Creative Writing Teacher/NM History Instructor at Robert F. Kennedy Charter High School. She is a former member of 2006 and 2007 City of Albuquerque Slam Team and the 2008 National Champion UNM Lobo Slam Team. She is currently a member of the writing collective and performance troupe… Continue

Added by The DitchRider on November 29, 2009 at 8:00am — 15 Comments

The Sunday Poem: Todd Moore... instructions

A gun barrel, 70 words, 37 lines. This skinny poem looks like a coffin nail, a phallic gesture, a rush to death, or the passage of Time itself. But along its narrow length are 37 little framed pictures clicking by as you drop down the page.

"When I read a poem I want it to be something that could scalp me and leave me for dead. I want it to be suffused with the beauty of language and the power of murder. I want it to own me every time I… Continue

Added by The DitchRider on November 22, 2009 at 7:33am — 5 Comments

The Sunday Poem: Lisa Gill... Red as a Lotus: Letters to a Dead Trappist, XVI & XIX

In his Seeds of Contemplation, Catholic monk Thomas Merton wrote, "The purpose of a book of meditations is to teach you how to think and not to do your thinking for you." Living alone in a trailer next to an alfalfa field, Lisa Gill wrote back. Red as a Lotus consists of 100 poems dedicated to Merton, who died in 1968.

Like life,… Continue

Added by The DitchRider on November 15, 2009 at 7:00am — 8 Comments

The Sunday Poem: Merimee Moffitt... The Seco Bar, 1973

It takes a special kind of poet to write a great poem about a bar. The only other ones that come to mind are The Shooting of Dan McGrew and The Face on the Barroom Floor. Hang on to your hats and ponytails! And watch out for flying shot glasses! For you… Continue

Added by The DitchRider on November 8, 2009 at 8:00am — 11 Comments

The Sunday Poem: Rich Boucher... Please have Pity on these People; They are From the Past

Irony and humor are not the tools of every poet. But here Rich Boucher wears them like six-guns in this look into American history and how it is viewed.

A past member of five national poetry slam teams (Team Worcester, MA 1995 & 1996, Team Washington, DC in 2001, Team Wilmington, DE in 2007 and Team Albuquerque, NM in 2008), Rich has published four chapbooks of poetry and for seven years hosted an open reading and slam in Newark,… Continue

Added by The DitchRider on November 1, 2009 at 7:30am — 15 Comments

The Sunday Poem: Gaurav Rajen... India: An Invitation (1988)

The adventure that is Gaurav Rajen's life began in India where he was born. This look back to his native land tries to come to grips with what has to be one of the most complex countries on the face of the planet. Packed with emotions and vivid images, this poem both dances and broods.

A short second poem, Late Night Hells, follows.

I live in Albuquerque's NE heights. I am an engineer with a doctorate working on… Continue

Added by The DitchRider on October 25, 2009 at 7:29am — 4 Comments

The Sunday Poem: Elaine Schwartz... Auntie Margaret's Hungarian Pastry

Lies are just as entertaining as Truth. Just ask cable TV. Yet there are those moments when you can not only see what is true, you can smell it...taste it. Just ask Elaine Schwartz.

This wonderful piece awakens the hunger for truth in all of us.

Auntie Margaret’s Hungarian Pastry

If it weren’t true would Auntie Margaret’s blurry blue tattoo come into view as she lights the Sabbath candles, welcomes… Continue

Added by The DitchRider on October 18, 2009 at 8:00am — 5 Comments

The Sunday Poem: Barbara Byers... Things to Do

I was born to fundamentalist Christian cult parents who are white supremacists. I grew up in Denver and escaped to New Mexico in 1982. Justice, art and travel are the engines that drive me.

As a child, I was not nurtured but forced. As an adult, I oppose force and try to learn how to nurture myself and all the people around me.

Things to Do

(Notes to Self poems)

Be kind.

Watch your back

and… Continue

Added by The DitchRider on October 11, 2009 at 7:51am — 23 Comments

A Potluck with The Sunday Poets

Since The Sunday Poem series started last February, 29 different local poets have been featured here on the front page of the Duke City Fix. If you feel like reviewing their contributions, just click on The DitchRider in the left-hand sidebar. Every magical poem and poet is still there...each offering a different aspect of our rich literary scene here in… Continue

Added by The DitchRider on October 4, 2009 at 4:30pm — 3 Comments

The Sunday Poem: Cirrelda Snider-Bryan... Ode to Lucky Encounters

Listen. Cranes! It's fall...time to get up from the computer, walk outside, and look up.

Long-time Duke City Fix member Cirrelda "CC" Snider-Bryan is a resident of Albuquerque’s North Valley. She is devoted to filling notebooks — "journal as documenter." This poem comes straight out of those pages, with some tweaking done before she read it last Winter at the wonderful Treehouse reading series downtown. In addition to notebooks, she… Continue

Added by The DitchRider on October 4, 2009 at 7:30am — 16 Comments

The Sunday Poem: Susan Sherman... A Word to the Wise

Poet, playwright, co-founder of IKON magazine, Susan Sherman has published four collections of poetry, a translation from Spanish of a Cuba play, Shango de Ima, (Doubleday, 1971) and The Color of the Heart: Writing from Struggle & Change, 1959-1990 (Curbstone, 1990.) Her critically acclaimed memoir America’s Child: A Woman’s Journey through the Radical Sixties was published by Curbstone, November 2007. She divides her time between Albuquerque and… Continue

Added by The DitchRider on September 27, 2009 at 8:30am — 4 Comments

The Sunday Poem: Tanaya Winder... Hole In My Heart

I come from the Duckwater Shoshone and Southern Ute nations. I was raised on the Southern Ute Indian reservation in southern Colorado; I consider that place along with the Pyramid Lake Paiute reservation in Nixon, NV my two homes, my origins. Because of the strong connection I feel towards place, I feel I am a child of both water and the desert. Perhaps this is one of the reasons I have chosen to make my home here in Albuquerque. I am grounded in… Continue

Added by The DitchRider on September 20, 2009 at 8:00am — 7 Comments

The Sunday Poem: Cathy Arellano... West Mesa Women

I’m a resident of Burque’s South Valley. I write about growing up brown, coming out queer, and living as true as I can which is kinda crooked. I write to re-member my family, hand-me-down shared rentals, window glass crumb-filled streets, dive bars, and other ignored people, places, and things. Also, I write to understand this new place that reminds me of home, San Francisco’s Mission District, and makes me feel like an outsider at the same… Continue

Added by The DitchRider on September 6, 2009 at 8:30am — 10 Comments

The Sunday Poem: Margaret Randall... Nothing was What it Pretended

Albuquerque poet Margaret Randall, whose most recent books include STONES WITNESS, TO CHANGE THE WORLD: MY YEARS IN CUBA and… Continue

Added by The DitchRider on August 30, 2009 at 8:00am — 5 Comments

The Sunday Poem: Richard Vargas... what war?

It is amazing that with three full-time news channels we hear so little about Iraq and Afganistan. Who can name more than one province of either country. Not many of us. And this is after what...six years of being there?

Richard Vargas is the author of two books of poetry: McLife and… Continue

Added by The DitchRider on August 23, 2009 at 8:30am — 3 Comments

The Sunday Poem: Tamra Hays... Starting Over

Starting over? This little poem navigates through the clutter of life. The images are so strong that a first reading hides its rigorous organization. It is powerful and lush, yet spare...not an extra word or thought anywhere. It is just a beautiful piece you can enjoy over and over again.

After teaching in the Duke City for over 20 years, Tamra Hays and her husband, Michael, began to teach in international schools. They now split their time… Continue

Added by The DitchRider on August 16, 2009 at 8:00am — 6 Comments