Loveland Poet Laureate Blog

I have been thinking a lot lately about writing and travel, probably because I am traveling and I'm trying to write also. I brought with me Lavinia Spalding's Traveling Away (Laviniaspalding.com) which gives lots of tips and tricks for travel journaling. And of course that's immediately what comes to mind when we put travel and writing together. But there's no reason that travel writing can't be poetry!

Inspired by months which celebrate our humanity such as Black History and Women’s History, April was sanctioned by the Academy of American Poets in 1995 as National Poetry Month. We celebrate poetry by increasing awareness of appreciation for its need and usefulness in our lives. National Poetry Writing Month encourages us to write a poem a day in April.

CONGRATULATIONS TO BETH LECHLEITNER
LOVELAND POET LAUREATE 2025-2027

The Loveland Poet Laureate Board of Directors, the City of Loveland, and the community wish to welcome you as our new Poet Laureate.

Dear Friend

It is early morning and the moon
is already down,
the air cold and still,
stars hidden behind the clouds.

Encountering a Poet Presentation on Saturday, March 29, Noon at Loveland Public Library.

Consider: a new poem starts to come to you. Hallalujah!

So you dig in, write, revise, write, revise. Or maybe the entire thing, aesthetically beautiful, vital, with images that swoop in from the stars, drops into your lap. (Just kidding!) At any rate, you’re thrilled by what you have written, plus that line that’s been sitting for years in one of your notebooks—“sex is dust”—has suddenly found a home. Could this be your breakout poem, finally, the best thing you have ever written?

Register

Julie Cummings will present a workshop on Adrienne Rich in the “Encountering a Poet” series sponsored by the Loveland Poet Laureate at the Loveland Public Library.

Space is limited, so registration is required, but free at the Loveland Library web site.

(A donation of 5 dollars is appreciated at the door of the Gertrude Scott room of the Library where the event will be held.) 

Register

On Saturday, January 25th April Stutters will lead the first of the three presentations in the 2025 Encountering a Poet Series.  

 

Stutters will focus on Marge Piercy, the 88-year-old radical, Jewish, feminist writer and activist whose work focuses on social change and environmentalism.  She is a prolific writer in many genres, including poetry, novels, and non-fiction. Her work is, as it always has been, very relevant to this time in history.  

Space is limited, so registration is required, but free at the Loveland Library web site.(A donation of 5 dollars is appreciated at the door of the Gertrude Scott room of the Library where the event will be held.) 

The Encountering a Poet series is brought to you by the Loveland Poet Laureate.  More information from the presenters of the next two encounters  will appear in this blog in February and in March. 

 

--Beth Lechleitner

Before the industrial revolution sleep looked a lot different than it does today. In the NYT Best seller “Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times” Katherine May brings forth the idea that our natural clocks in the winter were not designed for an 8-hour straight sleep. If you are like me, and like May, you may be finding yourself awake at 3:00 in the morning. Her research shows that before electricity was in every home, it was common in the winter to have a “first” sleep” nodding off when it got dark, and a time of waking in the early hours, which was followed by a “second” sleep. It is a natural rhythm very different from today.