One part love of poetry, one part local authors and one part UNM Bookstore.
That’s how students can celebrate National Poetry Month.
The Bookstore is hosting its third annual “Wednesdays at Noon Poetry Series.” Lisa Walden, the general book manager and events coordinator at the UNM Bookstore, put it together.
“I have always done the local outreach for the Bookstore,” Walden said. “There will be four poets total for this month, one every Wednesday. The first year we did it, we had a lot of poets contact us. So now we’ve learned to cut it down.”
She said the series started last Wednesday with David Wilde. The readings are open to the public in the general book section of the bookstore.
“The English department has been really supportive of the series,” Walden said. “They recommend it to a lot of their students. Also, the poets are also eager to get people to listen to their poetry, so they bring in their own network of people. Poetry is self-reflecting. For college students, being in a learning environment, I think they become a lot more self-reflective. It is a good time to process what is going on, and that is what poets do. I think that is why we’ve gotten such good responses from the students.”
Most of the poets read works that have not been published yet, Walden said. Today, Rebecca Aronson is the featured poet. The Albuquerque resident is a contributing editor to The Laurel Review.
“Aronson came to me last year to read a book that she had co-edited. We were unfortunately booked, so I told her about our series in April,” Walden said. “Most of the poets we bring in contact me to read. The poets are often students or faculty members. We try to offer a variety of poetry.”
Aronson’s first book Creature, Creature won the Main-Traveled Roads Press poetry contest. She has also won the Prairie Schooner Strauss Award and the Loft Literary Center’s Speakeasy Poetry Award.
“My poetry is about a lot of different things,” Aronson said. “I think there are a handful of repeating themes throughout my work. I am a micro-observer of the natural world, so there is a lot of attention to physical place. Also, there are contemplations about relationships that people have.”
Aronson is also an English teacher at UNM. She said she writes poems that the general audience can relate to.
“My poems are about experiences that people have had. They are familiar to people,” she said. “Even if I may say it differently, the subject matter is that of regular life. Poetry is something that I feel compelled to do. When I’m writing, although it may be a struggle at times, it’s kind of like I am away from the rest of my life. It is great to be able to interact with other people, whether they are poets or not.”
The series were put together to celebrate National Poetry Month. There is no theme tying all the poets together except the love of poetry, Walden said.
“Poetry itself is very powerful. It has nationally shown its impact,” Walden said. “With the University Bookstore, a great writing program, the staff and students, I think it (is) a good place to have poets show their work.”
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Walden said the poets appreciate the opportunity to share their poems with an audience. It is also a unique opportunity for the audience because most of the readings have yet to be published, Aronson said.
“It is unfortunate that it is just a month to celebrate poetry,” she said. “It is important and worth celebrating for several reasons. There are a lot of different people who write poetry. There is a huge world of poetry out there in terms of interesting things that people can do with language. Anyone interested in music, storytelling or likes the sounds of words can connect with poetry.”
There will be two more poets after Rebecca Aronson, including V.B. Price and Ken Stewart, Walden said.
“It is exciting to draw attention from what people consider a dying art form. You don’t see a lot of people making a living as a poet. Most of our poets do something else along with writing poetry,” she said. “National Poetry Month allows for different venues, including this one, to put on poetry readings. Every poet has an audience that they can finally come out and read to.”
