This writing will not be a history of all the monumental things that Bonnie did and the awards she won for her writing and her community work. As important as they are, this is a personal kind of tribute. I have been so very fortunate to know Bonnie, as a friend and fellow poet.

We met at the poetry critique group that Larry Godfrey used to hold in his home almost 20 years ago. We came to know each other through our poetry, our histories speaking to each other. We discovered our mothers were so alike they probably would’ve hated each other. Both of them had expansive ideas that could not fit into a Minnesota town or a farm in Montana. Both of them left their children behind and went their own way. Bonnie could have played the victim of a difficult childhood, but she did not. Instead, she and her brother, Pat, figured out how to make dinners from Spam and not much else, to feed all four children. And she always had her books, kept in the apple crate . . .

When her eyesight made it difficult to read, due to an eye condition in her later years, she started putting her poems in 16 font, bold, so she could read them using the flashlight on her phone. When that didn’t work anymore, she memorized them for readings! This exemplified her character. Always finding a way . . .

She lived not far the Buckhorn Restaurant and Opera House, and would occasionally go out on Friday nights with her friend, Connie, loving the music, sitting by the fire. The first time I saw her she was at a music concert with her husband, Librado. I was sitting behind them. They looked like such an interesting couple. He was tall and dark and she was blonde and quite short. I didn’t know them yet, but there was something about them. Later I began to hear all they had done for the community.

Bonnie knew how to listen and also how to tell you what needed to be said. Very succinctly. Honest but kind. Courageous. She had a deep laugh, a chuckle, that she used, even with herself, when she saw the irony of things. There was always an on-going writing project, but she also took time to sit in solitude, in the company of birds and flowers. Bonnie was the kind of friend you could depend on to tell you the truth, and I shall miss her most for that.

~Elise Stuart

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Observations and Insights
on the Nature of Things

This monthly column features brief essays, poems, poetic micro essays and photography by Eve West Bessier, Poet Laureate Emerita of Silver City and Grant County, New Mexico. Look for a new post on the first of the month.

Fluent – Decode – Retain

Oh, to be fluent
in the language
of ordinary hope,

adept at decoding
the compounded interest
of unremarkable moments.

Easy enough to grasp
the billboard-sized missives
that arrive by way of life’s
outsized experiences.

But how to comprehend
the mysticism of the mundane?

It is not the immediate
experience that molds us,
it is what we retain,

the resonance that remains
long after the day
is merely history.



Photo credit: “Meditative Moment,” pen and ink drawing, Eve West Bessier

“Fluent – Decode – Retain” first appeared in the author’s collection, “Hope is Audacious,” 2026

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Christina Nealson was recognized by Mayor Simon Wheaton-Smith on May 26 as the new Poet Laureate of Silver City and Grant County. She is the latest honoree in a long line of distinguished poets beginning in 2012. Christina will serve from 2026-2028, and has exciting ideas to bring poetry into the community.

Nealson is the author of five books and photographer of four. Her career in photojournalism has taken her to Africa, Central America, and throughout the west from Alaska to the tip of Baja. She has received numerous honors for her writing. Her love of the wildness of the southwest, its non-human and human inhabitants, geography, history, and culture is long standing. She has also worked as an interpretive park ranger. After many years in various locations throughout Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, she has chosen Silver City for its location near the Gila, its vibrant creativity, and absence of pretense.

During her term as Poet Laureate, Christina hopes to engage people of all backgrounds and ages in poetic activities that are relevant to their lives and concerns. She will also be organizing activities in the more rural and mining communities outside of Silver City. She has opened a facebook page called Silver City Poet Laureate where she can communicate with the community and announce coming events.

Christina will be at Avalon Book Store, 425 N. Bullard St., on Friday, June 12 at 5 p.m. to give a reading of her poetry, followed by an open mic. She will also be interviewed by Howie Richey on July 13 at 10 a.m. on KURU’s Poetry Bread.

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Observations and Insights
on the Nature of Things

This monthly column features brief essays, poems, poetic micro essays and photography by Eve West Bessier, Poet Laureate Emerita of Silver City and Grant County, New Mexico. Look for a new post on the first of the month.

Hope is Audacious

Hope is a choice
made in a dark moment
to open the blinds
so that possibilities
are made visible.

Hope is not wishful thinking,
or whimsy or self-indulgence.

It is a blueprint for the future
that requires sustained
visionary optimism.

At times, hope is a hummingbird
in a wild storm, tenaciously
staying the course.

It is line nine of a sonnet
that shifts the kaleidoscopic view
into an unexpected new formation.

Hope turns the hourglass
upside down, just before
all the sand runs out.

It gives us more time
to find answers,
to take action.

Hope is not a reaction
to feeling caught
in a dead-end alley.

It is the key
to the hidden gate
we didn’t see
was there all along.

Hope is audacious.



Photo credit: Stock


This poem is from Eve’s new book, “Hope is Audacious.”
Available at the link below.

https://a.co/d/0alts4Q3

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Observations and Insights
on the Nature of Things

This monthly column features brief essays, poems, poetic micro essays and photography by Eve West Bessier, Poet Laureate Emerita of Silver City and Grant County, New Mexico. Look for a new post on the first of the month.

Its Own Brand of Grace

Inspired by, “We’re Gettin’ Western Now Boys,” a drawing by New Mexico artist, Robert Shufelt

The hair on the horse’s head,
so finely rendered in graphite
you can feel the texture,
rough and prickly at its edges.

The cattleman’s mustached face,
filled with rugged bravado,
dark hat brim shielding his eyes
from the harsh New Mexico sun.

The rope in his left hand
hanging slack, but at the ready
to lasso the horns or head
of a straying Hereford.

His right arm reaches upward
in a gesture of exhilaration.
His mouth is opened slightly,
the sound of a crisp “Yip!”
escaping his chapped lips.

We do not hear it with our ears,
yet the illustration brings to us
the thunderous stampede
of a thousand heavy hooves
on the packed dry dust
of the far-eastern prairie.

What lies just beyond
the edge of the rendering
is nonetheless present.

It’s a roundup of our history
extending westward across
cholla-dotted landscapes
to the flanks of the Sacramento
and ragged Sandia mountains.

A roundup of outposts
from earlier centuries
along historic trade routes,
the Santa Fe and Butterfield Trails,
the notorious Jornada del Muerto.

A roundup surging south
along the banks of the Rio Grande,
passing ancient adobe pueblos
where sacred chants and dances
still fill the earthen bu-ping-geh.

The monsoon river flows down
through fertile valleys to reservoirs,
to the old town of Hatch,
where the best chilies are grown.

Our state is a roundup of renowned
artistry in graphically designed pottery,
modern statuary, woven tapestry
and abstract landscapes on canvas.

A roundup of energy technologies.
Farms of solar panels and wind turbines,
oil fields and massive mining industries.

A roundup of unbridled wildness
in the Aldo Leopold and Gila,
where serene silence reigns
over Ponderosa pine, piñon
and alligator juniper.

A roundup of open range lands,
pecan orchards and high mesas
where robust radio telescopes
probe the known cosmos.

Yes, it’s a roundup,
but we know New Mexico
cannot be corralled
into any singular description.

It holds its own brand of grace,
a buoyancy of pure light,
a furious firing of the imagination
that overwhelming vastness elicits,

a unique perspective on the divine
that four horizons stretching
into copious emptiness inspires.

New Mexico is forever free-ranging!




Photo credit: “We’re Gettin’ Western Now Boys,” a drawing by New Mexico artist, Robert Shufelt

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In celebration of National Poetry Month, for the second year, poet laureate Heather Frankland has curated the Poetry Long Weekend, working with other poets, libraries, and businesses to co-organize the event. The Poetry Long Weekend is a series of interconnected poetry events coordinated to be on the same weekend in order to showcase our vibrant poetry community. The Poetry Long Weekend will run from April 9th to April 12th.

On April 9th, the first event will be at the Western New Mexico University’s Miller Library from 11:00-1:00 PM. The event will feature poetry readings and presentations by Miller Library Director, Samantha Johnson, WNMU Writer in Residence JJ Amaworo Wilson, Dr. Jack Crocker, WNMU students, Leonore Hildebrandt, Dr. Gregory Robinson Guerra, and Professor Heather Frankland. The event is supported by WNMU Humanities Department, WNMU Miller Library, WNMU College of Arts and Sciences, Southwest Word Fiesta, and SWAG Books & More.

The second event on April 9th, will be at Bayard Public Library from 2:30 to 5:00 PM. Mimbres poets, Cheryl Howard and Cindy McCain will be leading a poetry workshop, “Pantoums, Zines, Tankas, and Smash Books,” in which participants will be discovering new ways to write and present poetry. 

On April 10th, there will be a poetry reading at the Public Library of Silver City from 3:30 to 5:00 PM. Four Southern New Mexico poets will be reading from Cacti Fur Collective, a poetry split (a type of anthology) published by Grandma Moses Press. Each of the four poets bring a unique perspective to the desert landscape and the human experience: Heather Frankland, Susan Melinda Morée, Beate Sigriddaughter, and Elise Stuart. As this is a new publication launch, attendees will have the first opportunity to purchase a brand-new book containing fresh work from all four poets. This Grandma Moses Press release serves as a definitive look at the Collective’s recent output and will be available for signing following the reading. 

On April 11th, there will be two events. The first is a poetry workshop, “The True Haiku,” led by local poet, Kit West, from 9:00-10:30 at Desert Bouquet Studio at 108 Yankie Street. In this workshop, form will be explored. Kit explains, “We will find ways to bring all our skills to bear on the brief and beautiful haiku. We will bring skills we developed to write poetry in our own tradition to this utterly different set of poetics that we will make our own while respecting its history. We will use, not just image, but also simile and metaphor and the music of the English poem. We will use assonance and consonance and alliteration. We can, if we want, use meter. We will not try to be Japanese. We will become English language poets pouring ourselves into a small, exquisite porcelain cup from which we might even drink sake.

We will also expand this exploration to include the linked haiku. This we will do by way of an ancient game of writing the group haiku. Very fun! Requirements? Paper, pencil and curiosity.” 

The second event on April 11th is at the Tranquilbuzz Coffee House from 12 to 2 PM will be their monthly Word Café.  The one for this day is unique in that it is for local youth poets. The group and event will be lead by local poet, Shelly Barnett. If youth poets would like to sign up early for their spot, they are welcome to reach out to Shelly at 23justpeachy@gmail.com or in person at SWAG heARTspace. 

April 12th marks the last event, postcard poetry, hosted by Javalina Coffee House from 10:00 to 1PM. Poets Allison Waterman and Roberta Brown will lead the experience. Stop by Javalina for a coffee and a chance to write a postcard poem.

All events themselves are free. Come to one or all. Come and celebrate poetry and our poetry community. 

For more information contact the poet laureate at heather.frankland@wnmu.edu or follow the poet laureate Facebook page at Silver City and Grant County Poet Laureate. Additionally, the public libraries of Silver City and Bayard can be contacted: The Silver City Public Library at (575) 538-3672 or programs@silvercitypubliclibrary.org. The Silver City Public Library is located at 515 W. College Avenue in Silver City and online at www.silvercitypubliclibrary.org. You can connect with them on Facebook @The Public Library of Silver City, New Mexico or on Instagram @silvercitypubliclibrary. The Bayard Public Library can be reached at 575-537-6244 or cprovencio@cityofbayardnm.gov. The Bayard Public Library is located at 1112 Central Avenue in Bayard and online at bayardpubliclibrary.org. You can connect with them on Facebook @Bayard, NM Public Library or on Instagram @bayardpubliclibrary.

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Observations and Insights
on the Nature of Things

This monthly column features brief essays, poems, poetic micro essays and photography by Eve West Bessier, Poet Laureate Emerita of Silver City and Grant County, New Mexico. Look for a new post on the first of the month.

Cedar – Habitat – Sabbatical

Let me take a sabbatical,

seek out a wild habitat
for my too-tamed mind.

Find a secret hide-away

with ample elevation,
a wide-angled view.

Add a few cedar
and juniper trees,
an aspen grove
on a high slope.

Provide a sanctuary
where sunlight plays
on granite and teases
the emerald skin of lakes.

Gently place me
where I can breathe
thinner air,
bathe my lungs
in alpine coolness,

remember
from where I came,

remember
my own name,

remember
the nature
of the golden ratio,

the shape
of ancient change.



Photo credit: Eve West Bessier, “Mountain Zen” 2016

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Rolling coal is becoming a crisis in Silver City, but nobody’s talking about the permanent solution. At a recent town council meeting, three citizens from among the many who regularly protest at Silver Heights Boulevard and Swan Street complained that coal-rollers try to disrupt their events by emitting black clouds of sooty smoke from their diesel trucks.

We’re all familiar with teenagers and young adults acting rebellious to upset the old fogeys. This case is unusual in that the old people are rebelling against the government, and the young people are defiantly supporting the status quo. That seems backward to some of us, but we’ll ignore that and get down to basic definitions.

“Rolling coal” means using certain add-on equipment to diesel pickups to deliberately bypass emission control and send up smoke with incompletely combusted fuel. There are various methods of achieving this dysfunction, often activated with a switch near the dashboard.

Wikipedia says the modifications cost from $200 to $5,000, but the friendly young man on YouTube telling you how to do it says it might cost $10,000 to do it yourself or up to $20,000 if you hire a mechanic. Any amount sounds like stupid to me.

Rolling coal is often a protest against environmental regulations. Coal-rollers spew their pollution onto electric cars and bicyclists. But here in Silver City, it has recently been used to oppose the crowds of older citizens protesting the actions of ICE in Minneapolis, and of Trump policy in general.

What the citizens at the council meeting didn’t specifically mention is that it is not technically illegal to roll coal in Silver City. There is no ordinance against it.

Coal-rolling appears contrary to the New Mexico Administrative Code 20.2.61.110, which says: “No person shall permit, cause, suffer or allow the emission into the open air of any smoke having an opacity greater than 40 percent for any period greater than 10 seconds from any diesel-powered vehicle. …” This is a regulation, not a law, and no penalty is listed, but more importantly, if you read the text carefully, it essentially says you can roll coal all you want for up to 10 seconds. It’s unenforceable.

Some states, such as Colorado and New Jersey, have laws with penalties against coal rolling, as do municipalities such as Cheyenne, Wyoming. Other areas have used existing ordinances against public nuisance, although you can imagine that such vague rules might be hard to prosecute.

If Silver City wants to stop coal-rolling, we would need our own ordinance. Do we want this ordinance? You might disagree with protesters, you might say climate change is a fraud and you might dislike electric cars or even bicycles — although opposing bicycles in the home of the Tour of the Gila seems unpatriotic.

But the point of an ordinance is that coal-rolling is uncivilized.

You’re essentially attacking people you disagree with. It’s like scrawling graffiti on someone’s house or business. You can add that coal-rolling pollutes the air, but we won’t get into that controversy in this column.

An ordinance must be specific and enforceable. There are two ways to address it. First, the act of rolling coal could be forbidden and penalized. This is easy. Many people have taken pictures of coal-rolling incidents. They include license plates. It is no problem to write tickets for verified incidents. You could just use license information to mail them citations. A $500 fine sound appropriate.

You could also penalize bypassing required anti-pollution equipment. If a coal-rolling vehicle is identified by license plate, police could go to the owner’s home and check to see if it has the equipment. If so, a fine and a notice to fix the vehicle within 10 days. At the end of the time, the vehicle is checked again. You can imagine how this would infuriate people who have spent big bucks to make their point.

Fine. Ordinances have public hearings, and this one would be exciting. We’d hear from the people who claim it is their all-American right to pursue happiness by spewing pollution on godless communists. The old folks would claim to be more American than the coal-rollers. The council would decide.

The alternative comes from a comment I found on Reddit: “I had a distant neighbor in California with one of these obnoxious trucks. It had vertical pipes, big fat ones. Wouldn’t you know it … a small watermelon fit in there perfectly.”

Well, vigilante versus vigilante sounds like poetic justice. Anti- coal-rolling vigilantes could find and punish coal-rolling vigilantes. But wouldn’t a pro-civilization ordinance be safer?

Bruce McKinney is a Silver City business owner, close observer of local government and occasional troublemaker. In his columns, which appears whenever something upsets him so much that he can’t shut up, he tries to address big questions from a local perspective. Send comments and ideas to bruce@greensilverlinings.com.

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Each spring, Silver City becomes the center of one of the most demanding cycling races in North America. The Tour of the Gila brings riders from across the United States and from around the world to compete on the roads of Grant County in southwest New Mexico, where mountains, high desert, and winding canyons create a course known for both its beauty and its difficulty.

First held in 1987, the Tour of the Gila has grown into a major stage race on the American cycling calendar. Professional and amateur cyclists arrive prepared to face high elevation, steep climbs, and long distances that test endurance and strategy over the course of five days.

The race begins with the Tyrone Individual Time Trial. In this opening stage riders leave the starting line one at a time and race against the clock across rolling terrain near the village of Tyrone, south of Silver City. The course demands careful pacing and concentration as competitors attempt to set the fastest time.

From there the race moves into the mountains for the Mogollon Road Race, one of the most challenging stages of the week. The road climbs toward the historic mining town of Mogollon, where steep grades and thin mountain air often separate the strongest riders from the rest of the field. Riders pass through rugged country where desert hills give way to pine forests and sweeping views of the Gila region.

The following stage, known as the Inner Loop Road Race, winds through the hills and valleys outside Silver City. Riders face long miles and steady climbing as the accumulated effort of the race begins to take its toll.

On Saturday the atmosphere shifts as the competition moves into downtown Silver City for the criterium. Riders circle a short course through the historic streets while spectators line the sidewalks. The pace is fast and the corners are tight, creating an exciting event for both racers and the crowd.

The race concludes with the stage known as the Gila Monster Road Race. This final challenge includes a demanding climb toward Pinos Altos and often determines the overall winner of the event.

For Silver City and the surrounding communities, the Tour of the Gila is more than a sporting event. Volunteers, local organizations, and residents work together each year to support the race and welcome visitors. Events like this reflect the strong sense of community that defines Silver City and much of southwest New Mexico.

As the next Tour of the Gila approaches, cyclists will once again prepare to face the same roads that have challenged competitors for nearly four decades. The mountains of southwest New Mexico will offer the same test they always have, and for those who take part, the experience remains unforgettable.

For more information about the race, including routes, schedules, and event updates, visit the official Tour of the Gila website.

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Observations and Insights
on the Nature of Things

This monthly column features brief essays, poems, poetic micro essays and photography by Eve West Bessier, Poet Laureate Emerita of Silver City and Grant County, New Mexico. Look for a new post every first Friday.

Freshwater – Past – Continuity

There’s a freshwater lake
beneath
White Sands National Park.

Or perhaps,
it is ancient saline water
from the Cretaceous Era
when a sea flowed
into and created this basin.

There is continuity
from the prehistoric.

I have taken
three-hundred photos
from a plastic bin
containing random
Kodak packets
and placed the images
in chronological order

into a big red
orange album.

Sunrise.
Sunset.

Multiplied by
ten-thousand.

I can now see
that there is continuity
in my own flowing

from past stories
to present realities.

Freshwater
salinated
by generous tears.

A basin filled
with a myriad
memories flowing
hot and cold.

The good
and the sad
combined.

My own
subterranean
reservoir.

My own
anthropological
diary.


Photo credit: “Beneath the Surface,” Eve West Bessier, 2025

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