“Free Hugs: Selected and New Poems”
By Jefferson Carter (Coyote Arts). 95 pp. $14.95.

Reading Jefferson Carter’s poems is like having a performance in your head. His voice does perform — or “preform,” as he quips. A poem might start with an observation — “To a narcissist, all/the world’s a mirror” — elaborate for a few lines, and then throw in a goat. You can feel a wry peek at the audience. The back cover calls Carter’s work “direct, clear, accessible, often wise, and always funny.” Couldn’t be righter.
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“Free Hugs,” retired Pima College writing instructor Carter’s 13th book, includes poems from four previous volumes and 23 new ones. They’re familial (“She ain’t heavy. She’s my wife”), sometimes absurd (“I love my soft palate”), conflicted (“I swore I’d stop writing about liberal guilt”), aging-aware (“Sometimes I feel/like a Family Dollar store/in a dying strip mall”), political (“I’m wondering/ what our cat, will encounter/after the thermonuclear flash-bang”).
All in all, these poems are engaging reflections of an irreverent, expansive, convention-free mind.
— Christine Wald-Hopkins

A HALF CENTURY LATER – From the Sandia foothills of New Mexico, I send greetings to all, and a brief message about the art and craft of reporting. I’m a graduate of Boston University’s 1975 journalism program at what is now the College of Communication (COM).  I’m still standing. Still writing. Still passionate. Still reporting on the Beauty Way paths integral to our land and our lives.

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Extended Submission Deadline August 31, 2025