'Looking to the Mountain' event brings anthology poets together

In the summer of 2020, New Mexico Poet Laureate Levi Romero and emerita Albuquerque Poet Laureate Michelle Otero took turns meeting outside at their homes during the pandemic, reading more than 700 poems received as submissions for the “New Mexico Poetry Anthology.”

“They were blind submissions, so part of the fun of selecting the poems was realizing this was written by a friend, or this was written by someone who has never published, or by someone we know is a state senator,” Otero said at an event in Las Cruces, Saturday, March 23. “So, it was a really beautiful surprise to see whose work was included in here.”

The event, “Looking to the Mountain: Sacred Lands, Healing Cultures,” brought together area poets included in the anthology to read their pieces. They were followed by an open mic for the community as well.

Otero, originally from Deming, read from the preface of the book: “Poetry calls us in the way that grandparents do. It asks us to sit, to eat, to bring ourselves to a kitchen table covered in oilcloth, spilling over with memories and bathed in morning light.”

The book represents a broad cohort of New Mexicans across more than 300 pages. The call for work asked for original, unpublished poems that celebrated “the people, cultures, languages, traditions, and querencia” of New Mexico. In making their selections, the co-editors found that a common band of themes coursed through the work, ranging from community, identity, our state’s striking landscape, faith, and more.  

“New Mexico Poetry Anthology 2023” was a collaboration between New Mexico Arts, New Mexico State Library Poetry Center and Museum of New Mexico Press. The anthology is available directly at mnmpress.org/?p=allBooks&id=314