WORD SCULPTURES

I wrote the first poem in the “Word Sculptures” collection for a competition sponsored by Poetry Alliance, one of the poetry groups that I attend.   The contest's theme was poetry relating to disability, and those of us placing in the contest read our poems at the Southwest Conference on Disability here in Albuquerque in the spring of 2017.   My poem was a description of Michael Naranjo's “The Dancer.”   Naranjo, a native of the Santa Clara Pueblo, served in Vietnam where he lost his sight and the use of his right hand.   Naranjo has become one of New Mexico's master sculptors, and his bronze “Dancer” marks the entrance of the Albuquerque Museum.   After writing that first piece, I continued to write poems describing sculpture in the Albuquerque Museum Sculpture Garden.   I wrote nineteen additional poems, and illustrator Francesca Searer has created images of many of them.