Ten--nine professors and a graduate student--tell forty tales in rhymed verse as they drive a van to a conference from the University of Montana to San Francisco, wedging in two odes to an earthworm & dandelion, four sonnets, four ditties, one villanelle, and singing two original songs. In the spirit and style of Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," they embark on a pilgrimage to reap knowledge at the Holy Grail of computer technology in Silicon Valley with one simple rule: "you can speak at any time so long as you speak in rhyme." The themes of the tales are as diverse as the group of reluctant...

Much of the literature about northeastern New Mexico depicts range wars, bandits, labor union strife, and Indian depredations. This collection of twelve modern folktales describes events that never made headlines and people who never had a building named after them, evoking the rich tradition of storytelling that flowed through the coal camps and ranches of the Raton region during the early twentieth century.

The tales in this collection are about everyday life with some fantastic elements. An African American mother and daughter confront a German prisoner of war in one story, while in...

From the coal camps of northeastern New Mexico comes a tale of families and friends struggling to rise above working and living conditions Theodore Roosevelt once described as worse than the serfdom of the Middle Ages. In this prequel to "Coal Camp Days," the Chicorico miners battle to establish a labor union that promises to rectify dangerous and oppressive mining conditions.

The story opens in 1931 when Julian and Dahlia Heard, an African American coal mining family, take in Swannie, a town drunk. Swannie finds sobriety, peace, and opportunity with the Heards until his friend Judo...

The coalfields of northern New Mexico are the setting for the remembrances of six-year-old Matias Montano, a fictionalized version of the author's life in the last years of World War II. Garcia writes about ordinary coal-mining people as they struggle to make a living and raise families, and about their heroism, joy for living, and their belief in the value of education, hard work, and the American Dream. For Matias, his brothers, friends, and the adults in their lives, the poor living conditions did not interfere with their adventures and activities, which included collecting scrap iron,...

Here are forty-one poems, some serious, silly, long and short. I hope you find some to give you pause to wonder about the extraordinary in the ordinary life around you, here and now. Enjoy.