Aaron Abeyta – Poetry

The Poem(s) for Which We Are Grateful

A Creative Writing Workshop in Poetry

Each poem, those personal gestures of honesty, compassion, healing, and joy, are our attempts to enter a temporal and sacred space – where the universal and the personal meet at the confluence of our lives shared with those of our readers. It was W.H. Auden who said that there were only a handful of poems for which he was truly grateful. What is the stuff – the magical, technique, the myths, the scars, the many homes of our hearts – that occupies the page in a poem that we can point to as being truly grateful for? Fishtrap, 2024 will be our examination of the techniques, the leaps, and the consistent work of what makes a poem, not just a keeper but timeless and therefore human in a way that only a poem can be. What are the elements of a poem for which we are truly grateful – that work which creates its own mythology while simultaneously examining the daily work of living – bold, accessible and brave for having been written? 

Each of us is carrying that poem within us. We have contemplated it for years, decades, some of us since before we can remember. We will seek that poem. Our workshop will explore the multiple and complex emotions, those which seem disparate and difficult to tether to one another in a meaningful way, and we will write, write again, navigate the dangerous and safe places that poem will take us. Together, we will craft the poem we have always wanted to write, surrendering ourselves to the places, people and the voice the poem dictates, not us…the poem will guide us into its existence (that’s the hope).

Aaron A. Abeyta is a Colorado native,  Professor of English and the former Mayor of Antonito, Colorado, his hometown.  Abeyta is also the co-founder of The Justice & Heritage Academy. He is the author of five collections of poetry and one novel. For his book, colcha, Abeyta received an American Book Award and the Colorado Book Award.  His most recent book, Ancestor of Fire was shortlisted for the Reading the West Book Award. In addition, his novel, Rise, Do Not be Afraid, was a finalist for the 2007 Colorado Book Award and El Premio Aztlan. Abeyta was awarded a Colorado Council on the Arts Fellowship for poetry, and he is the former Poet Laureate of Colorado’s Western Slope, as named by the Karen Chamberlain Poetry Festival. Abeyta is also a recipient of a Governor’s Creative Leadership Award for 2017. Abeyta was a finalist for Colorado Poet Laureate, 2019. Aaron has over 100 publications including ‘An Introduction to Poetry, 10th ed.,’ Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, & Drama, 8th ed.’ ‘Conversations in American Literature: Language, Rhetoric, & Culture’  ‘The Leopold Outlook’ ‘Colorado Central Magazine’ ‘The High Country News’ and numerous other journals.  

Learn more: aaronabeytapoet.com