Today is the publication day for Encantado: Desert Monologues, Pat’s seventh adult poetry collection. Pat writes:

Ten years ago, I returned to Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters. I became intrigued by writing short monologues with the hope of, perhaps, seeing the poems performed. I was also pondering the issues raised by Thornton Wilder in Our Town and the whole notion of “our town,” the public and private lives we live.

Life is complex. People often hide their deepest fears and feelings. My hope is that readers who like voices—hearing others—and who share my interest in others, their emotional journeys, like and unlike us, will find the time spent reading these poems and pondering them, well spent. I listened intently and then hoped to share what I heard from an assortment of people whose stories or lives snagged my interest.

In our celebrity culture, millions are spent to be seen, to be heard, to be interviewed, to be quoted. For the last ten years, I’ve been interested in the unsung voices of the people around us, those who won’t be on morning shows. I created a small city in the Southwest, Encantado, bordered by a river. A number of the speakers are in the habit of confiding in the river. All the speakers, living or spirits, address us directly.
Pat