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…

Beautiful images of our enchanted landscape dance with a bit of danger in this poem of the season.  No wonder we never grow tired of living here or wandering down those country roads.  "Cibola Winter" was written when Dale and her husband lived in Torreon and owned the Hummingbird Cafe in Mountainair.  She…

The poet sits in an arroyo contemplating what it means to be alive and human.  How New Mexico is that!  This gorgeous poem explores that moment and is itself a revelation.



Elizabeth Jacobson will be reading this morning at Sunday Chatter.  This poem is from her book, …

Dave Brubeck's death this week was a sad milepost of sorts.  So many loved his music and played his Time Out album over and over.  Brubeck's piano and Paul Desmond's lilting sax are instantly recognizable, but…

Brubeck's gone.  Dave Brubeck died yesterday at the age of 92.   I didn't know about it until Don McIver posted a comment on Sunday's poem and then emailed me.  He…

Poet Don McIver continues his poetic meditations on the classic jazz scene.  John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" was recorded in December of 1964--three years before his death, from liver cancer, at age 40.

Don McIver, whose work has inspired the Duke City for decades, wrote this piece just…

This world is ever revealing and ever concealing.  We get the briefest glimpse of something, then it disappears.  So as you reach for that cup of coffee this morning, remember that the steaming cup you see is not the cup that is.  And Stewart Warren?  Why he's smiling.



Stewart runs…

Years ago many of us faced life among the industrial factories of America.  Quite a few ended up here…in the Land of Enchantment.  Bruce Holapple contemplates one of the lessons learned in Buffalo, New York.



Bruce works as a Speech-Language Pathologist in Magdalena.  He’s published six books of…

Jazz and poetry were made for each other.  This morning, with that dark cloud bank over the Sandias and yellow leaves falling all over town, winter edges into our consciousness.  Mmmmm..."Kind of Blue."  This morning is jazz perfect.



"Ideally, you should queue up Miles Davis' "Freddie…

If ever there were an election awash in money, this is it.  Fortunately, in a political version of El Niño, most of the national TV ads seem to be passing north of us.  Here in the Land of Enchantment these battles are fought in our front lawns.



Jules is the founder of Jules' Poetry Playhouse in…

The Duende Poetry Series of Placitas, now in its eighth year, will sponsor the fourth (and last) reading of 2012, today at 3pm at the Anasazi Fields…

It might be a scene in Corrales, Los Ranchos, Belen, or near the poet's home in Peralta.  In any case the sharp eyes of Aileen O'Catherine see beyond the straw and corn husks, and peer into the future of a youngster making a scarecrow.  In this one moment, autumn seems a lot like…

Women and girls are under attack worldwide--Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, and even here in the USA.  For instance, during last week's vice-presidential debate, Rep. Paul Ryan vowed to take decisions about abortion rights away from "unelected" judges and put them back in the legislature where they belong. …

Georgia once wrote me that her 5th grade principal at Emerson Elementary said that in 36 years of teaching, she was the worst kid she’d ever known.  With such an interesting childhood it is perhaps no wonder that people keep sending her self-improvement opportunities.  But not so fast!  The poet responds,…

Jon.  Yes…I do have a collection - not yet typed out - of poems on Frontier teabag sachets.  So in actual fact the collection is spread between teabags and notebooks equally of sufficient length to accommodate my epic-ally small pieces.  I keep these poem/teabag structures in my checkbook for…

The reader might wonder if a poem is actually written to a real person.  Well, maybe or maybe not.  Nonetheless, a poem is always written with someone in mind.  Rich Boucher takes the reader inside his heart and head this morning.



A past member of five national poetry slam teams, Rich has…

Imagine an artist painting with more than one brush at a time.  Imagine half of dozen sunrises today.  Imagine spending a lifetime being born.

Anya Achtenberg reads this…

Great writers are also great listeners.  This wonderful piece moves us through the life and times of South Valley resident, Don Juan Rey. 

Bill Nevins reads regularly at the East of Edith and Fixed and Free poetry gatherings and will read Irish poetry on March 16 2013 at Belen…

Ah…who hasn't run outside when those raindrops begin to fall.  Katrina K. Guarascio has.  And even though the rain now might seem such a distant memory, the sensuality of it all has not been lost.



Katrina K. Guarascio's most recent book is…

Three hundred years from now, scholars will mine internet data trying to figure out how we reacted to the changing climate.  This poem will be part of that research.  Our river, El Rio Grande, is the narrative that flows through it all.



Steven Hamp has resided in New Mexico since 1981 and currently…