By David Steinberg
Mary Ellen Capek, Lou Liberty and Juan J. Morales, three poets you may not have heard of, have recently published collections of their work. The poets deserve wider recognition.
Capek, of Corrales, said she’s been writing poetry since she could hold a pencil. “I have several thick folders full of it. . . . I did write poetry, but it mostly didn’t make sense. I didn’t have the words to describe what I was seeing,” Capek said.
Finally, at the urging of friends, her first collection of poems was published late last year— more than seven decades after she first wrapped her fingers around a pencil.
The collection, spanning 50 years, is titled “Love Lessons: Poems 1973–2023.”
In it, love takes many forms. Some of the poems, she said, are about her difficulties in not finding the words to describe the reality she was experiencing.
Others show the reader moments and people that Capek honestly and lovingly remembers.
Consider the atmosphere and the social awkwardness in a poem about an early dancing class: “We danced in the school basement / Strauss waltzes mingled with the smells of chocolate milk/and stale peanut butter sandwiches . . .” Another, “All My Relations (Blackbird, Spider, Crow),” demonstrates the poet’s love of nature: “A blackbird fat with spring seeds, worms, and winter’s rest/swoops to the curb puddle.”
The collection has already received public acknowledgement. It was a finalist for the Feathered Quill Book Awards in Poetry.
“I think that part of the whole reason for my poetry is saying, ‘This is who I am,’” Capek said. “I am trying to write in a narrative that is understandable. I hope that comes across.”
It does, indeed. Over the years, Capek did find the words to help her get an education and teach others to write.
She holds a doctorate in contemporary American poetry. Early in her career, she spent five years teaching basic writing skills at Essex County College in Newark, New Jersey.
“Most of my students were Black and Hispanic. I think I learned more from them than they did from me. … What I learned was how much language is shaped by reality. The hope was to get them to understand their language skills and put it on paper,” Capek said.
Before the poetry collection, she had published three books, one a textbook on writing in context, another a “women’s thesaurus” and the third a book on philanthropy.
Capek shared an unpublished poem in honor of the famous Native artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, a friend, neighbor and mentor who died last month.
The poem, “Flying Man, Dying Friend,” reads in part, “My friend is dying. She says she’s in the end zone, at peace. But I’m not/I want her news to be a bad dream. But it’s not.”