Past News

Spetember 24, 2011 - Tijeras Poet's Picnic

Where else can you find a poetry fall festival that includes not only Fab Four poets Tani Arness, Rich Boucher, Yasmine Najdi (with accompanist Stefan Dill) and Richard Vargas (emceed by the incomparable Stewart Warren), a 5-piece acoustic band that includes a fiddle player who can twirl a hula hoop and dance to her own fiddle tune at the same time, poetry-honking Esmeralda (yes, a direct descendent of THE Mother Goose) and her translator, Oma, one of the few humans certified in Goose language, and an open microphone session under the trees? Oh, and did I mention being surrounded by beautiful art in a perfect open-air setting in Tijeras, New Mexico?


Those were only a few of the highlights of the first NMSPS Fall Festival. Having the date coincide with the September 24 date chosen by 100,000 Poets for Change enabled the Society to take part not only with other groups across Albuquerque and Santa Fe but also in a global event involving 90 countries or more. It sounds like an auspicious beginning for what could become an annual event. Start thinking NMSPS Fall Festival and Poets Picnic every year.

February 19, 2011

Former NMSPS President Bonnie Rucobo and Treasurer Hilda Wales traveled to Roswell February 19th to attend a meeting of the High Prairie Poets (HPP) at the Roswell Museum and Arts Center. The meeting began with HPP member Candace Russell and her husband Chuck reading a series of love poems.


Attendees of HPP Chapter: (pictured from right to left) Gretchen Phillips, Gorton Smith, Margaret Rodriguez, Kaarina Jager, Tom Strama, Amanda Carson, Robert Reynolds, Shelby Carson, Hilda Wales, wife of Robert Reynolds, Chuck Russell, Candace Russell, Bonnie Rucobo, Jim Applegate, Pat Hittle, and Ann Applegarth.

Then Rucobo and Wales presented an overview of the proposed New Mexico State Poetry Society's newly revised Constitution emphasizing the involvement of all Chapters in Board Meetings and Project Teams by the use of telephone or computer technology. The Constitution will soon be disseminated to all NMSPS members and ratified by the membership. A poetry round-robin ensued with all members reading their poems.


Ann H. Applegarth,
Chair of the High Prairie Poets
Readers of the love poems, Candace and Chuck Russell,
posing at the close of the meeting

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Albuquerque Chapter Christmas Potluck


Poets attending the Albuquerque holiday gathering included: (top row from left to right) Hilda Wales, Marykay Chapman, Don DeNoon, Karin Bradberry, and Chandra Bales. Shown on the bottom row from left to right are Allen Roth, Annmarie Pearson, Debbie Eagan, and Elizabeth Lackmann. NMSPS President Bonnie Rucobo was the photographer.





Huitzili Gonzalez (right) presented a dramatic reading of her poem, Squiggle, which won first place in the 2010 NMSPS Poetry Contest, Youth Division. She read the poem at the Albuquerque Chapter holiday potluck which she attended with her mother and sister on December 11, 2010.

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Annemarie Oldfield Reads at Initial Meeting of this Year?s High Prairie Poets Chapter*
Roswell poet and educator Annemarie Oldfield presented a selection of her own poems and a poem by Wendell Berry at this year?s first meeting of the High Prairie Poets Chapter of the NMSPS Saturday, September 18, at the Roswell Museum and Art Center.

A teacher of composition and literature at Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell, Oldfield is also the Director of the High Plains Writing Project (HPWP), a National Writing project site. Through this project, Oldfield works with classroom teachers to help them incorporate writing, including poetry, into content areas to reinforce content mastery.

She leads teachers who are writers themselves and helps them provide literacy opportunities in schools and communities surrounding Roswell. The HPWP supports the Roswell Reads program and co-sponsors the High Prairie Poets? annual all-schools poetry contest. Oldfield has been writing and reading poetry for twenty-five years for instruction, celebration, and release.

Following the reading and a brief business session, the High Prairie Poets read their own poems. Les Langston, a first-time attendee, explained the efficient system he has developed for organizing and cross-referencing his poems in a notebook.


*High Prairie Poets Chapter Chair Ann Applegarth submitted this article and photograph of Annemarie Oldfield.

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Members of the Rio Grande Valencia Poets of Belen and Los Lunas visited the Rio Abajo Poets of Socorro for a poetry reading June 15, 2010. Barbara DuBois, Socorro?s Poet Laureate and chair of the Rio Abajo Poets, said it was the first time the two groups had met for a joint poetry reading.


Shown are (front row, from left) Sue Borchers, Barbara DuBois, Annmarie Pearson (chair of the Rio Grande Valencia Poets), Shirley Blackwell, Ellen Rippel and George Egert; (back row, from left) Bernadette Perez, John Egert, and Gary Chorr?. This photograph appeared in the El Defensor Chieftain on July 21, 2010.

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Ten NMSPS Members to Have Poetry Included in Adobe Walls Anthology
Editor Kenneth Gurney has selected poems of ten members of the New Mexico State Poetry Society for inclusion in his Adobe Walls anthology.

The poems will appear in Adobe Walls (#1) which will be available in late September. The poetry of approximately 80 New Mexico poets is featured in the anthology.

Shirley Blackwell?s form poem, ?Tomorrow?s Ashes, Next Year?s Rain,? will appear in the anthology as will Karin Bradberry?s form poem, ?Come On Bro.?

Additional contributors to the anthology are Barbara Dubois for her form poem, ?A Farm Pantoum,? and Kate Padilla for her free verse poem, ?Schoolyard Gangland.?

Bonnie Rucobo?s free verse poem, ?Flora, Dora, & Nora,? was included in the volume as were Georgia Santa Maria?s free verse poems, ?Desert Dwellers? and ?Celestial Taggers.?

Also contributing to Adobe Walls were NMSPS members Elaine Schwartz for her free verse poem, ?Bunuelos,? and Jeanne Shannon for her free verse poem, ?New Mexico: Days and Nights of Early Spring.?

Hilda Wales contributed her form poem, ?Spring Morning,? to the anthology, and Andrea Watson has two free verse poems included in the anthology, ?Landscape Of My Last Imagining? and ?mountain furniture,? as well as a form poem, ?Naming Ours the Altar.?

NMSPS poets featured in the anthology from the Albuquerque Chapter include: Karin Bradberry, Bonnie Rucobo, Elaine Schwartz, Jeanne Shannon, and Hilda Wales. Also featured are Shirley Blackwell and Georgia Santa Maria of the Rio Grande Valencia Poets. Additional NMSPS poets appearing in the anthology include Barbara Dubois and Kate Padilla of the Rio Abajo Poets. Andrea Watson is an at-large NMSPS member residing in Taos.

Kenneth Gurney, editor of the Adobe Walls anthologies, lives, hikes, bicycles, and writes poetry in Albuquerque. He was a painter and designer for twenty years before becoming a poet in 1993. He has edited and produced three poetry publications: ?Hodge Podge Poetry" (1995-1998 in print), ?Tamafyhr Mountain Poetry" (1998-2007 on the web) and ?Origami Condom? (2007-2008 on the web). He has been featured in readings across the country.

Contributors to Adobe Walls (#1) will receive a free copy of the publication in a reception/publication reading at the Harwood Art Center?s cafeteria reading space Saturday, October 9, from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m.

Gurney plans to publish the second volume of Adobe Walls shortly. He will be reading poems for that volume in November and December, 2010.