Article by Lynda La Rocca
Local Arts – February 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
WHEN I MOVED TO Central Colorado from the east coast in 1982 Salida was, in the words of the great Jimmy Buffett, “a dyin’ little town.” So was Leadville, which is where I settled. Frankly, so was much of central Colorado. Mining and, to a lesser extent, railroading — the region’s two major industries — had collapsed, plunging residents into the “bust” end of what has historically been called the “boom-bust” cycle.
This time, though, as the years passed, “bust” didn’t revert to “boom.” Instead, the last vestiges of active mining disappeared, and the railroad completely abandoned its service through the upper Arkansas River valley.
Then slowly, the gap left by departed industry began to be bridged — by tourism and, to my personal delight, by the arts. Today Salida has been reincarnated as a kind of mini-Santa Fe, its downtown filled with galleries, shops, bistros, cafés, and several theaters. Buena Vista and even tough-as-nails Leadville have also jumped on the arts bandwagon, drawing writers, musicians, and visual artists to set up shop within sight of some of the West’s most spectacular and inspiring scenery.
But to my mind, Salida remains the area’s undisputed arts king. That’s especially true when it comes to poetry. The poetry scene here is booming in the frontier sense of the word, with listings for poetry festivals, poetry readings, poetry-oriented radio programs, and poetry group meetings appearing regularly on the community calendar.
Coming our way soon is the fourth annual Sparrows: Colorado’s Performance Poetry Festival (January 29 – February 1). Poetry on a Platter also celebrates its fourth year beginning April 23 with a series of free workshops, public readings, discussions, and school visits by participating poets. On the third Thursday of each month (beginning at 7 p.m. during the winter and 7:30 p.m. in the summer), Bongo Billy’s Salida Café hosts the popular P3 (Poetry, Prose, and Performance) with performances by featured poets followed by a community open microphone.
And that’s not all. Sundays from noon to 1 p.m., local poet, visual artist, and P3 emcee Craig Nielson also hosts KHEN radio’s “Radio Poet,” a mix of recorded poetry, lyrical folk music, and live interviews and poetry readings. Then there’s the Shavano Poets’ Society, a chapter of Columbine Poets Inc., Colorado’s state poetry society, which meets the first Thursday of each month at 1 p.m. at Pueblo Bank & Trust on F Street to exchange poetry contest and publishing news, review monthly writing assignments, and read and discuss members’ poetry.
As a poet who spends a lot of poetry-related time in Salida, I’ve often wondered what it is about this place that’s so conducive to versifying. So I decided to ask some of the area’s best-known bards and poetry aficionados.
“Poetry worldwide has had a revival and is just exploding,” says Kathy Berg, Salida Regional Library’s archives and special projects librarian and the force behind Poetry on a Platter. “It’s been rediscovered as a ‘new’ way for people to express themselves, vent their feelings, and touch the emotions and spirits of others.”
“I think poetry’s not just making a comeback here, but all over,” echoes Sparrows co-founder Laurie James. “But it’s a matter of creating a venue for it, an if-you-build-it-they-will-come kind of thing. Sparrows, for example, is a way and a place for poets to join together and share their poetry. And if you’re not sharing it, what’s the point?”
ONE SENTIMENT expressed frequently is that Salida as a community welcomes and supports its poets — and all its artists.
“This town and the small businesses here have been behind me all the way, from the time I first walked in asking, ‘Can you give me $25?’ [to fund Sparrows],” says Sparrows founder Jude Janett. “The people of Salida support poetry by showing up at our events. Yes, people come from all over Colorado and New Mexico to attend Sparrows, but it’s Salida that gives us the greatest support. It’s a circle, really. Someone once called Sparrows a love fest, and that surprised me at first. But when I thought about it, that is what it’s about — love of poetry, the poets, each other, and the community.”
“But Salida is not just a poetry town,” adds Jessica Saunders, president of the Shavano Poets’ Society. “It’s a town for all the arts and as a community, it supports all the arts, whether that support comes through public attendance, cash donations, volunteer work, or local businesses providing free meeting locations, lodging, or meals for participants.”
Saunders, who is also on the board of Stage Left Theater, a community theater group that sponsors one-act playwriting contests, says Salida lets writers “loosen their inhibitions, create, and simply be who [they] are.”
“If I had to be esoteric about it, I’d say Salida has this energy that draws creative people to it,” observes P3 emcee Nielson, who moved here from Utah in 2001.
“I remember walking down F Street while visiting one time and suddenly shouting, This is it!’ I really felt that this was my home,” he explains. “I didn’t want to live in a yuppified place. I wanted something with real artists and real people. And you can truly be who you are here. No one’s judging you, and there’s no pretension.”
“A lot of closet poets are coming out of their closet here,” Berg points out. “I’ll see people at P3, for instance, who I might normally only see in their professional roles in a bank or at a business. Yet there they are, up at the mike, expressing a whole other side of themselves. This is a small town that supports its people, so you can stand up [at an open-microphone event], express your feelings, and be respected. No one will put you down here. You can express yourself artistically and be welcomed.”
AND WHEN IT COMES to Salida’s poetry, that expression involves all forms in all formats. P3’s open mikes welcome poets of all styles, at all levels, provided they confine their presentations to an allotted time period. “While most people just read their poetry, we encourage song poetry, skits, even performance poetry like Sparrows,” says Nielson.
And although anything goes at Shavano Poets’ Society meetings, the emphasis there is on learning about and experimenting with traditional and contemporary poetic forms, from sonnets, sestinas, and pantoums to limericks, free verse, and prose poems. Saunders assiduously prepares each monthly “lesson” and encourages all members to create at least one example of the form being studied.
Poetry on a Platter is a “poetry tour” that travels to Salida, Gunnison, and Montrose and features four regionally or nationally known poets who might not otherwise appear in these areas. In addition to giving local poetry fans a chance to interact with established poets, Platter poets host special student programs in schools at each participating community.
And then there’s Sparrows, performance poetry at its finest. So what, exactly, is “performance poetry”?
“It’s poetry with the intent of entertaining,” Janett explains. “It makes you smile, think, laugh, and participate. It reaches you.
“Poetry originally was sung by bards,” she points out. “It wasn’t an academic exercise; it was for the people. You can have great poetry on the page, but if the poet can’t deliver that poetry in his or her own unique voice, that poet will be published, sure. But they won’t appear at Sparrows.”
And why name a performance poetry festival Sparrows?
“I came up with the name,” James explains, “because there were these sparrows hanging out on a vine in my backyard and they were the only things that twittered, that were vibrant and full of life in the middle of the winter when Sparrows is held.”
And even though winter is the time, as Shakespeare wrote, “When icicles hang by the wall . . . [and] all aloud the wind doth blow . . . ” it’s also the season that kicks off Salida’s year-round love affair with poetry, be it printed, penned, parodied, or performed.
Lynda La Rocca writes prose and poetry from Twin Lakes.
