Ah! Nuevo México, hace mi corazón bueno!

I’ve returned to the place where many of my projects have been written. Dark Star Requiem found its beginnings here, as did many of the poems for Gratitude Songs. I've created praise poems here for the strangers I met living on the weird frontier who became good friends. Manuscripts have been honed, solo shows created, and the magic of language has become visible.

Bill Arms and me on the edge on the Rio Grande Gorge

Whether it’s in the shadow of the sentinel Taos Mountain – purple hued in the gloaming, or beside the tectonic rift of the awe-inspiring Rio Grande. Up among groves of alders and stands of stunted pinons – where I speak my poem-prayers into the evening - the natural beauty of this special place never fails to inspires me. How can one not find solace in the bone-warming heat of the desert, or up to one's neck in Ojo Caliente’s pools bubbling up from the earth’s core? To rub sage between fingers, or to listen to the whispering flap of migrating cranes’ wings - just pinpoints in the high, impossibly blue sky - provides the space for reflection.

Did I mention the nightly parade of kick-ass sunsets? I’m sure I will…