“These poems transport me. . . .With them Armitage has earned an even more prominent place in Texas literature.” –WF Strong, Stories from Texas: Some of Them Are True
“Armitage knows the landscape as intimately as the face of a beloved ancestor. .. .These poems will stay with the reader, evocative of the uncluttered country where the human heart’s tangled wilderness can find space, distance, peace.”–Kathryn Jones, author of An Orchid’s Guide to Life
Shelley’s Blog
29 Sep The Landscape Goes On Without Me
I walk daily near my Las Cruces home, really a bit out of town across the banks of the Rio Grande beneath an ancient volcanic cone called Picacho Hill. Farm land lies east and west of the Rio Grande so that my sunrises and sunsets feature not only the Organ Mountains in the distance but acres of chili, alfalfa, and pecan orchards. It's a lovely site despite the development--on up the road a golf course, ritzy houses, and BMW's during rush hour. I live in what I call "the...
20 Sep Coyote: C’est Moi
Back when I was visiting Peggy Pond Church at her retirement facility in Santa Fe, I would arrive some mid-mornings to find a note on her door: "Napping, come on in." Peggy, a poet and writer in her 80's, was an early riser (4-ish), so 10 am was a perfectly respectable nap time. In a little while she would emerge from her bedroom; as I waited I never failed to take note of a post card of a coyote stuck to her filing cabinet drawer. From l983 to l986...