Review by Lynda La Rocca
Poetry – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
The Silver Lode – Columbine Poets of Colorado – Members’ Anthology, 25th Anniversary
Published in 2003 by Riverstone Press of the Foothills
Columbine Poets Inc.,
P.O. Box 6245, Broomfield, CO 80021)
ISBN 0-936600-10-1
COLORADO IS A STATE made for poetry. We’ve got just about every kind of scenery to inspire writers of verse, from mountains and prairies to deserts and canyonlands. Heck, most springs we even have a semblance of oceanfront, when Medano Creek at the base of the Great Sand Dunes surges with its own mini-waves.
Colorado’s natural beauty, its people, places, history and heritage, are the focus of The Silver Lode, an anthology of poetry written by members of Columbine Poets Inc. to celebrate the group’s 25th anniversary. Founded in 1978, the state’s official poetry society began with a handful of poets meeting in the Fort Collins area. Today, Columbine Poets’ 90 members hail from throughout the state. The society supports two chapters — Foothills in the Denver-metro area and Shavano Poets, headquartered right here in Salida. And it is one of 39 state groups affiliated with the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, Inc.
The 66 poems (one per each participating member) included in this 75-page, perfect-bound volume run the gamut from free verse capturing the surprise of stumbling upon bleached animal bones scattered on the slopes of Mount Bierstadt, to a view of Denver’s Washington Park as winter approaches and the discovery in a Georgetown antique shop of:
Red blown-glass vases
Silver bubbles on the rim.
There are recollections of Leadville’s Augusta Tabor, the discarded first wife of flamboyant, 19th-century silver baron H.A.W. Tabor, and of Pearlina, a princess who supposedly tried her hand at mining in Chalk Creek Gulch. There’s even a series of Japanese haiku inspired by a visit to Crestone in the San Luis Valley. And tucked between poems on wild flowers and cottonwoods are offerings that capture the pathos and poignancy of life in Colorado — or anywhere, for that matter. The final lines of “Harvest Kuchen for Esther” by F. Louise Brown recall the horrifying loss of the neighbor who taught her to make this special dessert:
These peaches,
Halved, raw side up
Float beneath the sour cream
Open, yet soundless
Like your mouth
As your body floated
Just beneath the
Surface.
In “Mothers with Small Children,” Alice Dunda’s loving chronicle of a parent’s slide into the twilight, an elderly woman reluctantly accepts assistance from her adult daughter with:
” . . . precious tears in her eyes that day when she said, ‘Oh, Sissie, I used to do these things for YOU!'”
Members of the Shavano Poets’ chapter — including yours truly — are well-represented in this anthology, which features illustrations by Columbine Poets’ state president Gordon Holladay and a foreword by recording secretary Anita Jepson-Gilbert, both of whom also have contributed poems to the anthology.
The only criticism I have of The Silver Lode is that poems or portions of poems appearing on some of the recto or right-hand pages have not been properly centered. The lack of a left margin places these poems so close to the book’s spine that they’re difficult to read without forcing the book open. But that’s a problem easily remedied in future printings. Overall, The Silver Lode is a fine representation of Colorado’s poets and its poetry.