Loveland Poet Laureate Blog
New Loveland Poet Laureate
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.
National Poetry Writing Month
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.
It is early morning and the moon
Dear Friend
It is early morning and the moon
is already down,
the air cold and still,
stars hidden behind the clouds.
It is early morning and the moon
is already down,
the air cold and still,
stars hidden behind the clouds.
Encountering a Poet Series - Many-Angled Poet: The Capacious Imagination of Sharon Olds
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
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
Encountering a Poet: Adrienne Rich
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
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
2025 Encountering a Poet Series: Marge Piercy
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
3:00 A.M. May Be A Good Time for Reading and Writing
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.
How to Read Your Work Aloud to an Audience
Are you one of the featured readers in the Winter Quarterly reading on December 15? Or are you thinking of signing up for the open mic that Sunday (I am!) Are you thinking about reading your work in public at another event? Do you fear public reading but are considering a New Year’s resolution to try it!
Wherever you fall on that continuum, how can you make your next reading a great success?
Wherever you fall on that continuum, how can you make your next reading a great success?
Loveland Poet Laureate - November Blog
We all know that November is a month for celebrations. We immediately think of Veterans’ Day, and of course Thanksgiving Day. And NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month. But do you know that Nov 11th Is also National Origami Day. The 16th – National Tolerance Day; 17th – Electronic Greeting Card Day; 19th- Have a Bad Day Day, followed on the 20th by Absurdity Day; and 29th – Chia Pet Day.
Birthdays worth celebrating include: November 8th- Bram Stoker, author of Dracula; 9th - Carl Sagan, author & astronomer; 11th- Kurt Vonnegut, novelist; 18th- Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale; and 30th – Sameul Clemens (aka Mark Twain).
I recently came across a poem by one of my favorite authors – Stanley Kunitz. Born in 1906, he was still writing at age 100. He served as New York’s first State Poet Laureate and was named the 10th U.S. Poet Laureate at age 95. He won the National Book Award, a Pulitzer Prize and many other awards for his expressive poems and social commitment. Here is his celebration poem, summing up a joyful, productive life. He was 89 when it was published in his book, Passing Through: The Later Poems. Just goes to show—that it’s never too late to produce your best work!
-Lorrie Wolfe
Birthdays worth celebrating include: November 8th- Bram Stoker, author of Dracula; 9th - Carl Sagan, author & astronomer; 11th- Kurt Vonnegut, novelist; 18th- Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale; and 30th – Sameul Clemens (aka Mark Twain).
I recently came across a poem by one of my favorite authors – Stanley Kunitz. Born in 1906, he was still writing at age 100. He served as New York’s first State Poet Laureate and was named the 10th U.S. Poet Laureate at age 95. He won the National Book Award, a Pulitzer Prize and many other awards for his expressive poems and social commitment. Here is his celebration poem, summing up a joyful, productive life. He was 89 when it was published in his book, Passing Through: The Later Poems. Just goes to show—that it’s never too late to produce your best work!
-Lorrie Wolfe