After a rather demanding move from the countryside back to Quebec City in May, I headed for the Southwest on June 2nd to celebrate the first anniversary of Steady. Against the Absurd. Kinship at the Core‘s publication with my New Mexico community, followed by a wonderful, and huge, family reunion in Colorado!
Generous friends and family welcomed me with Steady already in their homes, or their willingness to have it in hand, and read it!
Two readings awaited in the beloved homeland for that anniversary celebration. First, one at the HERE Gallery in Santa Fe where my guest poet, Liz Burk, and I were welcomed by owners and painters Gary Barten and Katherine Meyer. Joy! as you can see in the photos. What can I say? Naturally It was good to be home and read for old and new friends and colleagues, some I met for the first time in person after years on zoom. Their warm and enthusiastic response moved me as much as my reading and voice moved them… It was a precious experience of reciprocity through poetry.
Then came something unexpected! A couple days later as I reviewed my prep for a second reading, this one in Taos at SOMOS on the 14th, I noticed an unusual email that I almost deleted. But happily I did not! It announced that Steady and I, with Wild Rising Press, were the WINNER of the American Book Fest 2025 International Book Award, in the category Poetry, narration. WELL! This recognition has given me such a sense of peace, as if there’s more air to breathe and more space to move in…and of course my work is more easily received.
Soon June 14th arrived. A significant date in the United States this year! I was happy that we, my two guest poets, Liz and a Taos poet Jami Donley, were reading on No Kings Day! The energetic collaboration, commitment and joie de vivre all over New Mexico – and the country -for the peaceful demonstrations was incredibly heartening. It brought to mind De Tocqueville’s statement in his Democracy in America, that what he admired most in Americans was the “creative capacity for innovation while holding moral ground.” It was satisfying to be part of that spirit through poetry.
Besides reading from Steady, I also read an excerpt from The Land: Our Gift and Wild Hope which I had launched at SOMOS in 2013! With Taos close to my heart, I quoted from my last chapter, where I recognize a soul sister in Jay Griffiths, whose Aboriginal friends taught her that “land needs to be visited, like a relative.” A beloved relative.
Relatives! Yes! I flew to Denver and joined my sister and her family for the drive up to the YMCA Camp of the Rockies where all generations of our Taylor family gathered, joining each other in our love of the mountains and its memories and trails in the Kawaneechee valley and and The Cabin, now gone.. How lucky we are!
