The Telluride Institute’s Talking Gourds Poetry Club hosts Salida poet and co-founder of the Sparrows Poetry Festival Laurie James Oct. 6 at 6 p.m. in Arroyo Wine Bar ad Gallery. 

 

Continuing its partnership with the Montrose Regional Library, Talking Gourds also will send James to Montrose to perform at the Library’s Open Mic reading series at 6 p.m. on Wednesday Oct. 7.

 

Born during a Montana January blizzard to a one-eyed man and a one-thumbed woman, Laurie James says the inspirations of her poetry practice flow from the great western landscapes and the back roads she travels. A 44-year resident of the Heart of the Rockies, she spins life's metaphors in the view of a lone pine and the wide-open valley sky.

 

In Telluride, following Club announcements and the featured performance, there will be a short break, after which the gourd will be passed around the room to give Club members and attendees a chance to read a poem or two. The theme for October is “Water”. Bring your own work or that of a favored poet.

 

The fall/winter series continues with Vonda Harris of Delta and Carol McDermott of Montrose November 3rd and 4th. The November theme will be “Mountains.” We’ll be ending the year with the husband/wife poetry team of Ruth Duffy and Michael Olchewsky of Nucla December 1st and 2nd. The theme will be “Snow.”

 

Talking Gourds Poetry Club is a program of the Telluride Institute in partnership with the Wilkinson Library, the Montrose Regional Library, Between the Covers Bookstore, Ah Haa School for the Arts and Arroyo Telluride.  Members meet monthly, on first-Tuesday evenings, at Arroyo Fine Art Gallery & Wine Bar at 220 E. Colorado Ave. beginning at 6 p.m. (next door to Ace Hardware).  The same guest will appear at the Montrose Regional Library’s Open Mic the next evening (a Wednesday).  For more info, contact Meg Nagel at <www.montroselibrary.org/event/open-mic-10> or 970-964-2548

 

Talking Gourds is indebted to generous donations from Audrey Marnoy, Peter Waldor and the Montrose Friends of the Library. Call 970-729-0220 or visit the Gourds website <talkinggourds.weebly.com> for more info.