The New Mexico State Poetry Society (NMSPS) embarked on a number of educational projects involving children and poetry in 2010 and is continuing these projects this year. The Albuquerque Chapter, under the guidance of Former Minister Larry Castillo-Wilson and then President Bonnie Rucobo, began the Children?s Poetry Project designed to inspire elementary-aged children to write poetry.

In 2011 three presentations were scheduled at Albuquerque libraries and ten presentations at Alvarado Elementary School in the North Valley. The library presentations included the Los Griegos Library, Albuquerque?s Main Library, and the Lomas-Tramway Library.

Aside from Castillo-Wilson and Rucobo, the poets that took part in the 2011 presentations included Princess Ifeama Achusim, John Candalaria, Mary Kaye Chapman, Gary Chorré, Deborah Eagan, Annmarie Pearson, George Forrest, and Ray Reeder. Lauren Schwartz, a poet new to Albuquerque, also took part in the program. Gary Chorré, George Forrest, and Annmarie Pearson belong to the Rio Grande Valencia Poets of Los Lunas/Belen.

In December, the Albuquerque holiday party featured a dramatic reading by Huitzili Gonzalez, a NMSPS member and NMSPS Youth Contest Winner. In June, at the NMSPS Annual Meeting, Dey Nuñez, who received a Third Honorable Mention in this year?s NFSPS Manningham competition, read her poem about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Both of these students received membership scholarships donated by a NMSPS Board Member.

Goals of the Children?s Poetry Project include:

• To inspire and excite children about poetry
• To help children learn how to write poetry
• To encourage children to write about their diverse backgrounds
• To inspire children to love poetry?a love that will last a lifetime

?The kids have been enthusiastic about our presentations. We inspired their imaginations and made them laugh,? says Castillo-Wilson. ?They asked good questions about the poetry we read and poetry in general.?

He stated that the evaluations he has received from teachers and librarians have been extremely positive. He believes that the project is accomplishing its goals.

The High Prairie Poets of Roswell (HPP)met monthly during the academic year to hear readings by guest poets and to read and critique their poems. Among the guests were the winners of the annual Roswell Character Counts competition at Roswell High School. Winners of this competition were invited to recite their poems at the February HPP meeting. HPP poets judged poems entered by Roswell students in the Character Counts competition. Paid membership now includes a home-schooled high school student, Amanda Carson, and her younger sister.

A major project for the year was the annual Spring Poetry Contest for students in Roswell public, private, and home schools. The 2010 contest received over 400 entries, and cash awards or certificates were presented to fifty students, along with a copy of an anthology of the winning poems. Again this year, the HPP and the High Plains Writing Project at Eastern New Mexico University co-sponsored the contest. Former NMSPS President Jim Applegate held a separate competition in conjunction with the Spring Poetry Contest. This competition, named in honor of his mother, honored winning haiku poems. These students, too, were presented with a copy of the anthology of winning poems.

Some of the members taught poetry workshops in local schools during the year, and HPP members were invited to serve as judges for the Character Counts poetry competition and the Poetry Out Loud competition at Roswell High School.

The Children?s Poetry Project Evaluation Form which follows is for teachers, guidance counselors, and librarians to complete following presentations by the NMSPS Children?s Poetry Project.