Mission Statement

The Constitution of the NMSPS states that NMSPS is a poetry organization within the state of New Mexico affiliated with the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, Inc. It is a non-profit society under Section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code and is dedicated to the furtherance of poetry.

The Society recognizes the importance of poetry to cultural welfare in the state and elsewhere and is dedicated to asserting this importance by its support. The NMSPS is non-partisan; it will not participate in political campaigns nor devote its activities to influencing legislation. The purposes of the Society are exclusively literary and educational. It may, however, provide New Mexico governmental branches with information that bears directly on the Society?s mission.

History

The New Mexico State Poetry Society (NMSPS) was founded March 19, 1969, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, by the nationally known poet Alice Briley. Briley was founder and editor of the poetry magazine, ?Encore,? and editor of two ?Encore? anthologies in 1976 and 1986. She edited ?Strophes,? the newsletter of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (NFSPS) for many years and served as President of both the NFSPS and the NMSPS.

In May 1969, NMSPS received a letter from Dr. Hans Juergensen, then President of NFSPS, notifying the Society that it was the official state affiliate of the NFSPS. In October 1969, poets from across the state met in Albuquerque, elected the Society?s officers, and adopted a Constitution. It was established that meetings would be held the second Saturday of the month, September through April, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Manzano del Sol Good Samaritan Village, 5201 Roma Avenue NE in Albuquerque. Winners of the annual NMSPS national poetry contests were to be announced and winning poems read at the May Awards Luncheon. The Society was incorporated in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on December 7, 1976.

Listed in order of service, NMSPS Presidents have been Dr. Peter Dechert, Alice Briley, Jeanne Bonnette, Joe Shaffer, Ruth Roberts, Latayne Scott, Laverne Rison, Elizabeth Lackmann, Beverly Merrick, Sue Tullos, Ginger Chavez, Lula Daudet, Glen Kappy, Victor Brenton, Jim Applegate, Jeanette Oestermeyer, Doris Jacobs-Covington, and George Forrest. Elected in 2009 as President of NMSPS was Bonnie Rucobo.

NMSPS encourages the writing, understanding, and appreciation of poetry through the use of workshops, seminars, round-robin readings, special speakers, and annual contests. The NMSPS has entered poems into the NFSPS-sponsored Manningham Poetry Trust Awards, a national contest for students. Many of these students have been awarded prizes and honorable mentions. In 1984 Nils Fullerton of Manzano High School in Albuquerque won first place for his poem, ?Trophy Case.? In 1999, Aleasha Decker of Sierra Alternative High School in Albuquerque won fourth place for her poem, ?Once.?

The Society has published five anthologies: Turquoise Land (1974), edited by Alice Briley, Dr. T. M. Pearce, and Jeanne Bonnette; Sandscript (1976), edited by Alice Briley, Jeanne Bonnette, and Dr. Peter Dechert; Earth Chant (1989), edited by Laverne Rison, Sharon Rogers, and Latayne Scott, and Compass Points (2002), edited by Stephanie Padilla. In 2009, NMSPS published Along the Rio Grande, Poetry from New Mexico, compiled by Jeanne Shannon, Deborah Barba Eagan, and Karen Bradberry. These publications reflect New Mexico historically, culturally, and artistically.

In June 1981, NMSPS was host to the NFSPS National Convention in Albuquerque at the Hilton Hotel. Many conventioneers enjoyed a tour of Acoma Pueblo, the oldest continuously inhabited community in the Southwest. With its massive 17th Century Catholic mission, Acoma Pueblo is built on a 367-foot sandstone bluff.

Geographic Area Served

The New Mexico State Poetry Society currently has more than 100 members in six chapters located throughout the state as well as at-large members who are not members of a specific chapter. Chapters include: the Albuquerque Chapter, the Rio Grande Valencia Poets of Belen and Los Lunas, the High Prairie Poets of Roswell, the Rio Abajo Poets based in Socorro, the Bosque chapter based in Corrales/Rio Rancho, and the Santa Fe Poets.

Primary Activities of the NMSPS

NMSPS Chapters convene monthly meetings (with the exception of the Albuquerque Chapter that takes a hiatus during the three summer months). Meetings can include members writing to prompts provided by Chairs followed by round-robins of poems written by members and others. Chapters also organize workshops led by local poets and judge local student poetry contests. The Albuquerque Chapter sponsors the Children?s Poetry Project in which members teach elementary children to write poetry, usually close to April, National Poetry Month.

Each year NMSPS has an annual poetry contest open to members and non-members. The judge of the contest is generally a non-member. Contest categories include: rhymed, free verse, Southwest, humor, and youth (poets 18 and under).

A highlight of the NMSPS year is the Annual Meeting (or Annual Convention), a luncheon at an Albuquerque restaurant in May. In recent years, poets have read their own poetry after the luncheon. This year, Santa Fe Poet Laureate, Joan Logghe, will be the featured reader.

History of Individual NMSPS Chapters (excluding the Albuquerque Chapter)

• What was to become the Rio Grande Valencia Poets Chapter of the NMSPS began in October 2005 when Belen resident and then NMSPS First Vice President George Forrest organized friends for monthly poetry readings at the Vista Del Rio clubhouse in Rio Communities. In December 2005, the group was officially constituted as a new Chapter. Forrest chaired the group until January 2007, by which time it was well established, before going on to serve as NMSPS President from 2007 to 2009. The charter members of the Valencia County group were George Forrest, Nancy Faust, Kuan Tikkun, Joyce Chalmers, Hildegunde Steele, and Shirley Blackwell.
  
  In its first year, the Chapter held three open microphone and public poetry readings and doubled its membership. In the early years, the group tried out several meeting times and places before settling on the first Saturday of each month. The RGV Poets meet monthly at 12:15 p.m. at Mike?s Square Diner on Highway 47 in the Tierra del Sol Shopping Center in Belen.
  
  In August 2007, then RGV Poets Chair Shirley Blackwell began writing a poetry column for the Valencia County News Bulletin to publicize the Chapter and promote poetry locally. The ?Rio Rhymes and Rhythms? column ran monthly for three years and helped the group grow to 28 poets by 2008.
  
  The Chapter has consistently sought to encourage young poets. It teamed up with Dr. Greg Candela?s poetry writing class at the University of New Mexico/Valencia Campus. UNM/VC s tudents and RGV poets have collaborated on joint literary events, and Chapter members have served as guest speakers on poetry at the campus. Since 2006, a RGV Poets? scholarship fund earmarked for student memberships has ensured that no young poet who wants to join the NMSPS need ever be financially unable to do so.
  
  Annmarie Pearson is currently Chair of the RGV Poets.
  
  
• NMSPS member Jim Applegate was one of the founding members of the High Prairie Poets of Roswell. He took a class in writing poetry from Jeanette Oestermeyer at the Roswell Adult and Senior Center along with several other poets. The group of students decided to form a poetry group and tried to contact NMSPS but received no reply. When they were invited to form a Chapter of the Pennsylvania Poetry Society, they did so in 1996. A few months later the NMSPS leadership including Victor Benton and Joe Shaffer asked the group to become a Chapter of NMSPS. Later, Jeanette Oestermeyer and Jim Applegate both served as Presidents of NMSPS.
  
  Oestermeyer and her husband have moved to Indiana, making Jim Applegate the only remaining founding member of the High Prairie Poets residing in New Mexico.
  
  The HPP meets on the third Saturday of every month from September through April at 2:00 p.m. at the Roswell Museum and Arts Center (11th and North Main) in Roswell. Ann Applegarth now serves as the group?s Chair.
  
  
  
• Chair Barbara DuBois states that the story of the inception of the Rio Abajo Chapter of Socorro is ?very simple.? She joined the NMSPS after the High Prairie Poets invited her to read at their meeting in February 2008. Soon thereafter, President George Forrest suggested that she form a Socorro Chapter which she did in October 2008. She initially managed to retain five members in the group which has grown considerably larger.
  
  The Rio Abajo Chapter meets on the third Tuesday of every month at 7:30 p.m. in the library at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, 801 Leroy Place, in Socorro. The Rio Grande Valencia Group visited the Rio Abajo Poets in June 2010.