PW Covington, Beat Poet Laureate of New Mexico

08/21/2026

Congratulations to all the poets and writers honored this year as National Beat Poetry Foundation Beat Poets Laureate!

08/20/2026

There was a quilting bee happening when the rolled up on The El Rito Library.
Volunteers were hard at work crafting another beautiful quilt to sell as a fundraiser for the library (See the photos below).

There were also photos of patrons' pets and tomato seedlings to check out.

When librarian Carole Smith heard that I was the National Beat Poetry Foundation,s current New Mexico BEAT Poet Laureate, she excitedly let me know that they had a copy of HOWL in the stacks...
We took another great taste of Allen Ginsberg, for sure, but also enjoyed grazing on some Jane Hirshfield.
Enjoy a taste of both, today:

"...who crashed through their minds in jail waiting for
impossible criminals with golden heads and the
charm of reality in their hearts who sang sweet
blues to Alcatraz..."
-from HOWL
By Allen Ginsberg in 'HOWL' (1956 City Lights Booksellers & Publishers)

and

"...Difficult to see why this pleases
Perhaps it is not the outcome, but the listening,
the being asked once more to listen."
-from THE LIE
By Jane Hirschfield in 'Given Sugar, Given Salt' (2001 Harper Collins)

We're visiting libraries all over the state, , New Mexico!

08/19/2026

The visited the Questa Public Library when we were up circumnavigating the Enchanted Circle in northern New Mexico.
We were happy to find some Mankiller in their poetry stacks:

"In the time of the ancients
we called ourselves
Real People

After countless seasons of "education"
we remain
Real People..."

-from REAL PEOPLE
By Wilma Mankiller in 'Mankiller Poems' (2022 Pulley Press)

We're visiting public, community, and tribal libraries all over New Mexico, checking out their poetry stacks and spotlighting the great folks doing good work in and around their local libraries.

, New Mexicans!

08/18/2026

When the rolled into Eagle Nest, NM (pop. 300), they were setting up for a show featuring cowboy singer Michael Martin Murphey.

The poetry available was just enough to prove prophetic.
(As some of you know, I have been traveling quite a bit lately, and it IS nice to be back home...)

"It's just a city, darling,
everyone calls New York
Wherever it is we meet
I can't go very far from,
I can't connect you with
anything but myself..."
-from IT'S JUST A CITY DARLING
By Leonard Cohen in 'Selected Poems 1956-1968' (1968 Viking)

Over the past two years, it's been a joy and an honor to visit so many of New Mexico's public, community, and tribal libraries!

We're not quite done, so thank you for following, and share these posts with those you think might enjoy tagging along as we near the end of my tenure as the National Beat Poetry Foundation,s 'New Mexico BEAT Poet Laureate (2024-2026)'.

There's still plenty of time to , New Mexico!

08/16/2026

Freedom. Use it or lose it.
HOWL!

The obscenity trial fought for the right to publish Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl and Other Poems” began 69 years ago today. It was originally scheduled to start on August 9, 1957, but the defence lawyers requested a one-week delay for “tactical reasons.”

Ginsberg’s book had been published in late 1956 but in March 1957 US Customs seized copies that had been sent from a printing company in England. A thousand copies slipped through but 520 were impounded. They were deemed to contain “matter not proper for admission” to the United States.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti capitalised on the publicity generated by the seizure by printing 2,500 copies in the US, thereby undermining the authority of US Customs, and on May 29 the impounded editions were released.

A few days later, however, on June 3, undercover officers purchased copies of “Howl” and a magazine called “The Miscellaneous Man” from City Lights, then arrested the store manager, Shig Murao. On June 6, Ferlinghetti—who owned the store—turned himself in to the police. He had foreseen this and had already enlisted the help of the ACLU, who would later fight the case in court.

The trial started (after the one-week delay mentioned above) on August 16, 1957. On October 3, Ferlinghetti was found not guilty in a landmark decision that had profound implications on what could be legally published in the US. Two days later, he printed another 5,000 copies and the book became a massive success in part due to the free publicity the trial had generated.

To date, "Howl and Other Poems" has sold well over a million copies.

08/13/2026

Rio Rancho Public Libraries...wow!
Striking architecture at the Loma Colorado Public Library!

It was great to see so many people in the stacks, fondling the literature, when the stopped in around midday, back in July. Several were in their food service or retail work uniforms.

NOTE: You'd probably be surprised at some of what's available for check-out from their "Library of Things."

It did my heart good to find this vital anthology, featuring necessary prose and poetry from so many dear personal friends, including this truth from Odilla Galvan Rodriguez (who also co-edited the project with Francisco X. Alarcón):

"...there are no
flights on 747's
for a people
with only prayers
without papers..."

-from BORDER INQUEST BLUES
By Odilla Galvan Rodriguez in 'Poetry of Resistance' (2016, The University of Arizona Press)

As the NBPF's 'New Mexico BEAT Poet Laureate', I've been visiting public, community, and tribal libraries across the state, grazing through their poetry sections and letting everybody know all the awesome things that New Mexico librarians and other book-folk are up to.

, New Mexicans!

08/12/2026

One of several New Mexico libraries named after former Governor Frank Cargo, who made rural libraries a priority of his administration, the library/community center in Villanueva, NM, was hopping when
the stopped in for a visit.
In addition to housing over 8,000 volumes available for check out, including an extensive collection of classic literature en Español, the building functions as a community center and distribution point for community food assistance programs.
Joann, a retired librarian who spent 20 years at the Carnegie Library in Las Vegas, NM, happily showed us all around, including showing off a photograph of the library building, which was built as a school in the early 1940's.

It is so often volunteers like Joann that keep rural and remote New Mexicans linked up not just to books and information, but also to vital services such as internet access for telehealth appointments.

In the stacks, we found this little jewel from the late Lawrence Ferlinghetti:

"...A colche tolled
twice
once for the birth
and once for the death
of love
that night."
-from PEACOCKS WALKED or #27
By Lawrence Ferlinghetti in 'Coney Island of the Mind' (1958 New Directions)

Urban, rural, and remote...public, community, and tribal...as the National Beat Poetry Foundation's 'New Mexico BEAT Poet Laureate’, I've been visiting libraries all over the Land of Enchantment, talking to the folks that provide so much to so many in their communities.

, New Mexicans!

08/11/2026

Now, here's something you don't get to see every day, but if you're in Albuquerque, you get TWO chances to see it in September.
Musicians, Painters and Visual artists, Poets (that'll be Don McIver and me). I'm sure there will be photographers there and about... all doing our own thing, together.
Does that sound like a train wreck?
It ABSOLUTELY can be, but it can also approach the sublime.

It's all up to the ephemeral flow of the muses and the vibe from those there in the moment. It's Zen-ish, how you've GOT to be right there, with the word, right there with the riff, right there with the brush stroke, right there with the color, right there on the segue, right there with the melody, right there with the audience, write there on the BEAT!
Huge thanks to the New Mexico Music Commission and the Friends of the Albuquerque Public Library.
We're meeting up right here in my neighborhood... at my "home" library, in the International District.

Tuesday, September 1st.
6:00PM - ALL AGES
Free Show (Please click the link for no-cost ticketing)

(I'll tell you about the other show later, but it's also gonna be at an ABQ branch library.)
It'd be awesome to see ya, September 1st; it's my first public "thing" as the 's 2026-2027 US National BEAT Poet Laureate.
, New Mexico!

Poets and artists will collaborate to the music of Dos Guëros and Disciples of the Backbeat.

08/10/2026

What a beautiful library they have in Artesia, NM!

The recently found ourselves rolling around the Permian Basin and in need of something more...poetic.

The Artesia Public Library was open (and air-conditioned), so we stopped in.
This little bit from the USA's 24th Poet Laureate worked wonders:

"...without the bother of licenses
or attention to a state line, a border, they
just grow where they've grown all their lives
there, a small stand of white pine arrives..."
-from OF ROOTS & ROAMERS
By Ada Limón in 'The Carrying" (2018 Milkwood Editions)

It was awesome talking to librarian Mia Fernandez about the beautiful mural prominently displayed at the library, and how it came to be there.
I should also mention the "Used Books and Free Coffee" library bookstore...I mean, used books and coffee- what else do you need?

As the National Beat Poetry Foundation,s New Mexico BEAT Poet Laureate, I'm really enjoying visiting public, community, and tribal libraries across our awesome state to check out their poetry stacks and to learn about the vital roles they play in their communities.

, New Mexico!