Aaron Abeyta

Dear Darrin,

I am writing in the evening light; the river birds have begun the last of their singing, sweet whistles, and rapid staccatos that are their language. I imagine they are asking one another for the very same things we might ask for, a lasting grace that is more than just their flight.

Aaron A. Abeyta is a poet who was born and raised in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado. He is the recipient of the Colorado Council on the Arts Fellowship for Poetry, has won the Grand Prize from the Academy of American Poets for his poem "colcha," and has received an American Book Award and the Colorado Book Award for his book Colcha (UPC). His poems have been published in The Dry Creek Review, Sage Plains Review, Chokecherries, and other literary journals. He is professor of English at Adams State University.

Is old-fashioned hospitality still alive? We are not talking about the “hospitality trade,” which thrives on the corners of every highway crossing. We are talking about welcoming in strangers out of empathy and generosity, not out of the drive to make money.

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