“A Poetic Inventory of the Cache La Poudre River” is an anthology published by Wolverine Farm Publick House that brought together 42 poets and writers with a range of experience to examine the Poudre River and Fort Collins’ complex relationship to it.
“This is a poetry anthology devoted to looking at the Cache la Poudre River through a myriad of lenses,” said Todd Simmons, founder, director and publisher at Wolverine Farm, who organized the project. “There are 42 different writers in that collection, ranging from top-performing, well-known poets down to people whose first time it was being published. It really runs the gamut of the community in and around the river.”
The poetry book was inspired by another anthology of poems created by local writers called, “A Poetic Inventory of Rocky Mountain National Park.”
“(‘A Poetic Inventory of Rocky Mountain National Park’) was one of our most popular poetry anthologies,” Simmons said. “We’ve long been interested in the river and long been involved in various projects around it. This one seemed like a natural evolution of one of our main areas of interest.”
The project features the work of Jason Hardung, a local artist and writer.
“We all love the Poudre River,” Hardung said. “We entertain ourselves on it and walk by it. (Simmons) wanted to make a book and get a bunch of local authors involved. He just wanted to spread our joy about the river or whatever stories we have about the river because it ties us all together.”
Hardung’s contribution was a poem that took a more emotional and therapeutic perspective on the river, tying it to loss and difficult times in his life.
“A lot of people write about how beautiful the river is and the wildlife and all that, which is great, but I wanted to do something a little more personal about what it meant to me, whether it was good or bad,” Hardung said. “I would walk along the river all of the time, whether I was in a good mood, or whether something bad was happening in my life. It’s kind of a dark poem, but there’s hope at the end.”
Chelsea Gilmore is another local artist and writer who contributed to the project through assisting in the editing and compilation process as well as contributing her own writing.
“As a visual artist, I’m used to hand-building objects like a sculpture or making a painting, and this book is really a testament to condensing all of the love and excitement joy that we feel in relationship to the river in a tangible object,” Gilmore said. “The nature of it being an anthology, with a collection of many different writers from the area, makes this a collaborative project that, to me, holds a lot of weight conceptually, which brings its significance as an object even greater.”
The river, which Gilmore said holds a lot of significance to her, was the inspiration for her poetic contribution to the book.
“My contribution to the book is a poetic essay that is really a compilation of many dreams that I’ve had about the river, and I created a small thread that connected all these different dreams together to tell a story about my relationship to the water here,” Gilmore said. “I also wrote the introduction, which goes into a bit more the meaning behind this process of putting the book together and honoring the river for all that it is and all that it has been.”
Like several of the other creators, Hardung said he hopes the book will inspire action.
“I hope they see how many people count on the river for all kinds of things, and I hope they take care of it long after we’re gone and the next generation is gone,” Hardung said. “I hope people take care of it and realize how special it is to have something like that here. It brings life from the mountains down through the prairie.”
With so many contributing voices, the book encapsulates all of the ways the community connects with the river, including through recreation, emotional attachment and drinking water.
“This (project) came together pretty seamlessly,” Simmons said. “It was a lot of fun to work on. I love how diverse it is.”
Simmons, whose background is in environmental conservation, said he hopes to bring together scientific and artistic fields.
“Sometimes the scientific disciplines can get a little siloed, a little isolated, just like artistic communities, and so I think by trying to infuse art with scientific knowledge and scientific facts, the universality, ideally, of science-based fact can sort of open up the audience,” Simmons said. “It makes it a little bit more appealing to folks who either, on one hand, wouldn’t really appreciate poetry as an art form, or to people who maybe don’t look towards science. I think that by cross-pollinating both worlds, we’re able to create a little bit more magic that way.”
While the poetry focuses on the conservation and art of the river, the cover of the book incorporates some of the historical context of Fort Collins’ water sources. Simmons said the book’s cover was sourced from a 1907 map he stumbled upon of Halligan Reservoir.
“It was just this really beautiful map, and typically reservoirs are not great for rivers because they’re diverting quite a bit of flow,” Simmons said. “I really like the beauty of the map and sort of the juxtaposition of this body of water that humans created off of one of the main tributaries of the Poudre. It’s part of our history and part of the reason that we are able to live here in the way that we do.”
Simmons said the book could help people look at bodies of water like Halligan Reservoir and the Poudre River with more intention and consciousness in the future.
“Looking at it head-on and not either just denouncing it or ignoring it, I think, brings a little bit more awareness when people just turn on their faucets and this awesome, beautiful, clean water comes out all the time,” Simmons said. “It just puts a little bit more thought into it.”
One of the book’s main goals is to give voice to the Poudre and its surrounding community.
“The river is one of the reasons why I have continued to live in Fort Collins, and I know it deeply impacts a lot of people living here, whether or not they know it,” Gilmore said. “Hopefully this book helps people in this one simple, small way to recognize this consistent force that exists in the place that we live in.”
Reach Gracie Douglas at entertainment@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.
