I was born in Roswell in 1935 and got a B.A. from USC. I’ve lived & helped garden in Placitas since 1963 and studied with Creeley, Olson & Ginsberg at the Vancouver Poetry Festival. I founded duende press, which published Margaret Randall, Kenneth Irby, Judson Crews & others. I’ve organized poetry readings in the Albuquerque area in the 70’s & 80’s and now in Placitas there is the duende poetry series at Anasazi Fields Winery.

I’ve developed my own “readings” into almost ceremonial events that try to lavishly serve the word. My notebooks contain handwritten scores rather than ‘drafts,’ since I don’t really revise. I get an on-edgy joy while guiding a poem making itself up. The urgent time of the writing develops the poem and determines if there is any need for apparel or mask to perform it. Usually there isn’t, but there’s always the joy of the release of the event. And I am truly grateful.

Bio: I was born just before the baby boom, March 20, 1944, and raised in the borough Bronx, NYC. In 1967 after being graduated from college at NYU, I came to Albuquerque, New Mexico to get an M.A. in fine arts. I completed a degree from UNM in 1968, met the poet Larry Goodell, and moved to Placitas. We have been living in our home in the Village since 1971, raising our son Joel, fruit trees, various dogs, cats, fish, turkeys, chickens, and of course, growing a garden . In 1978 I went to TVI to study surveying and drafting. I work as a cartographer, editing maps in AutoCad and creating orthophotos from digital aerial photographs and 3d surface data.

The Art: In approximately 35 years of using photography as an artistic medium I have always considered the nexus of eye/viewfinder/tripping shutter as the creative moment. Even though the computer allows for all manner and ease of digital trickery I am a total traditionalist. I don’t alter the image captured by the camera even by cropping. My photograph is a kind of found object. The objective subject matter is of little importance. Each photograph is a celebration of seeing and the poetry of light and patterns embodied in that moment.

This group of photographs was taken mid-80s, with a Canon F1N using Kodachrome film. They were scanned using a Polaroid SprintScan 120 at 4000dpi.