Bonnie's Latest Book

A poem from Too Personal for Words captures the spirit of the book.

Bonnie Buckley Maldonado has resided in Southwestern New Mexico since 1959. She is a professor and dean emeritus in education and counseling, Western New Mexico University. A Western woman, she possesses an abiding fascination for the rural west, its people and its landscapes.

Bonnie's third book, It's Only Raven Laughing, Wheatmark Press, 2010 was awarded the WILLA Literary Award for Poetry Finalist by Women Writing the West.

Her book, Montana, Too was named a finalist for Best Woman Writer at High Plains Book Festival, 2008. This is her third volume of poetry. Her work appears in the award winning anthology, Montana Women Writers: Geography of the Heart, edited by Caroline Patterson.

Bonnie lives in the mountains near Silver City, New Mexico with her husband, Librado and a bevy of rescue animals. She may be contacted via email, or by writing 23 Oxbow Dr., Silver City, NM 88061.

 

Solstice Communion
Voices bless a winter flower
of red and gold, red chile and corn;
worn hands pass the first tamales
from the dented roaster.

Communion wine is New Mexican,
red as sangre.
Masa is the bread of life.

Days of solstice preparation,
corn hand-ground,
red chile simmering,
and pork roasting.

Grandmothers’ memories
soften hojas and whip masa,
soft as sugar.

Masa on a fan of hoja,
red chile and meat in center.
Tamales carefully folded.
Organic origami.

They rest on chips of juniper,
an offering to our Lady,
to the coming of the light.