IN A PLACE, AT A TIME by Cheryl Howard

IN A PLACE, AT A TIME is a reflection on youth and age, traveling backward and forward in time and pausing here and there to suggest timely and timeless lessons, hopes, dreams. Geography figures prominently in the chapbook: the ways in which people and places interact and create identity, make us who we are. In this case, New Mexico is the “blue plate special.”

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Cheryl is a poet and visual artist living and working in the Mimbres Valley of southwestern New Mexico. She is firmly rooted in the geography of the southwest. She studied and worked at the University of New Mexico, and retired from teaching Sociology for 21 years at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). Until recently, she wrote sporadically and didn’t pursue publishing opportunities while raising a family and teaching full-time. This is her first chapbook.

These poems are “luminous threads,” reminding readers that the convergence of southern New Mexico high desert and mountain wilderness where Cheryl Howard makes her home is a place of constant renewal and wonder, at once specific to this geography, and universal for anyone who has ever found a home with the land. Cheryl reminds us that we can find a home far from the place of our ancestors. Through meditations on the life cycles and seasons of this geography, these poems remind us that we are part of the earth’s rhythms. Leaves will turn, the dust will become a devil, and dry lightning will eventually give way to blessed rain. Even when “the map is missing,” these poems chart the way home.

–Michelle Otero, author of Vessels: A Memoir of Borders and Bosque: Poems and Malinche’s Daughter.

This poetic love letter to New Mexico is beautifully infused with metaphor, music, nature and affection; a chapbook of accessible poetry, with compassionate, mature artistry.

-Billy Brown, host of Fixed & Free readings, editor/publisher of Fixed and Free Quarterly, Albuquerque NM, host of Fixed & Free readings.

Cheryl Howard’s poems traverse the geography of the land and of the many selves that anchor us, steer us, set us free, and capture us all at the same time. From writing about Albuquerque, a place, “that protected me until I knew what kind of woman I wanted to become” to driving with spirits, each poem serves as a map. You can feel the landscape in each one, and understand,”I do not own this land, this sky; it owns me.” This is a lovely book full of reflections and epiphanies–a journey to take many times.

-Heather Frankland, author of Midwest Musings and poet laureate of Silver City and Grant County, New Mexico

Poetry never interested me until I was introduced to Cheryl Howard’s clever way of putting words together. I got to know Cheryl as a neighbor and visual artist and, because of those connections, I read some of her poems. They linger in my mind, bringing language to emotions I have felt but couldn’t articulate.  If you are wary of poetry, give this collection a try.

-Mary Gates, neighbor