Saturday, 21 June 2014

Poets In New Mexico: How They Came To Be

By Ina Hunt


Poetry has been taken with a lot of seriousness despite lacking a poetic king for a long time in this state. There have been many efforts in nurturing poets in New Mexico. Most notably are efforts by an organization of high schools in forming the poetry out loud group, and the New Mexico Poetry Society. The former is a recitation competition for high school students while the later is a non-profit making organization charged with the responsibility of nurturing poetry.

Alice Briley formed the state Poetry Society in 1969. Ever since, they have done a commendable job in promoting poetry. They are faithful supporters of the welfare of cultures of different people. Their poems are, therefore, composed of cultural elements. They do not support political, social or religious movements, hence, discourage their members from getting involved in such movements and claim to be representing the society.

This society boasts of a number of poets. Among them are; Jim Applegate, Joe Shaffer, Jeanette Oestermeyer, Ann Applegarth and Lynn Baldwin among many other renowned poets. This organization has been in operation for all this while despite most of its founding members moving out of the state. In recent years, they have formed a strong partnership with the Eastern University. The partnership has helped organize student competitions which receive a lot of competitors and viewers.

The group developed the RGV chapter which has for all this time encouraged upcoming poets. It formed a strong partnership with the New Mexican University. The students reaped the benefits through lectures and advice on poetry. The university began imparting this knowledge into students admitted in poetry classes. This friendship bred scholarships for needy students at the state poetry society.

Poetry loud association organizes competitions for students. The students compete in reciting poems. This is followed by organized national and state prizes. The competitions are held in all the states and not this one alone. Major prizes include $ 200 as personal prizes for the winners, $ 500 renovating their libraries, $100 number twos and $200 renovating their school libraries. All requirements during the entire trip are catered for. National contests have greater prizes for participants. Several good writers have come out of such competitions.

Other earlier poets from this state included Dana Levin, D. H Lawrence; who had moved from Britain and Pat Mora. All these are poets whose works were widely appreciated by people of this state and many others in different parts of the world. They were among the earliest poets from this region.

These poets wrote about several issues as determined by happenings at the time. They addressed the troubles that came with industrialization, love, political revolutions and civilization among others as dictated by happenings at that time. They got a lot of recognition from all over the world.

Their styles equally differed as dictated by relevant literary movements in place when the poems were written. The movements included symbolism, romanticism realism and naturalism. Each of these movements greatly impacted on the poems. Each of the movements came with its style.




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