How You Might Approach a Foal:
like a lagoon, like a canoe,
like you
are part earth
and part moon,
like a bloom,
like deja vu,
l
ike you
had never been to the brink
or the Louvre,
like straw,
like air,
like your mother
had just this morning
braided a dream
into your hair,
like you
have nothing to do,
l
ike you
had never heard
a sermon or
a scathing word,
like a fool,
like a pearl,
like you
are new to the world.
(this poem first appeared in New Criterion and
subsequently in Best American Poetry)
Wendy Videlock of Palisade serves as poet laureate of Western Colorado.
Her poems, reviews, and essays appear most notably in Best American Poetry, Poetry Magazine, O Magazine, Hudson Review, Hopkins Review, Rattle, The New York Times, and American Life in Poetry.
Her books include What's That Supposed to Mean, (EXOT Books), Nevertheless, Slingshots & Love Plums, The Dark Gnu, Wise to the West, (Able Muse Press) and a book of essays: The Poetic Imaginarium: A Worthy Difficulty, (Lithic Press).
In the introduction to her first book, Nevertheless, MacArthur finalist AE Stallings says of her work, “Videlock is a magician of wit and whimsy, wisdom being not the least of these”. Timothy Green, editor of Rattle says, “Videlock is one of the few poets I can still read at length and purely for pleasure. Playfully wise and always surprising” Wendy is also a visual artist whose works are featured in galleries throughout western Colorado. Wendy believes that discovering one’s unique voice is a worthy difficulty and that listening deeply is an act of love. Her work is inspired by a love of language, a love of andscape, and by love itself.
Awards include: The PTBS Sonnet Prize, the Keats Soul Making Prize, The Fischer Prize, the Cantor Prize, The Ekphrastic Rattle Prize. Finalist for the Rattle Poetry Prize, The Colorado Book Award and Colorado Poet Laureate
Wendy also writes a syndicated newspaper column (The Barefoot Laureate) and her visual art is featured in galleries across the Western Slope.
Wendy directs the following Literary Programs: For the Birds, a collaboration with The Grand Valley Audubon Society , Good Morning Poetry, a local collaboration with D51 schools, Word Up: A Spoken Word collaboration with John Anglim at Copeka, Sculpted Words, a collaboration with GV Creates Art on the Corner Project, and the Pali Poetry Box,