“I am no scientist. I explore the neighborhood.”
—Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
I started this blog to explore the mystery that is still Denver. I wanted to write about Denver’s people, neighborhoods, shops, and restaurants with the same level of detail a naturalist like Annie Dillard brings to bear on her environment.
Here’s a little background about me: I moved to Boulder in 1987 to study fiction writing at the University of Colorado and fell victim to the Niwot curse. I’ve lived most of the twenty-one years since then here in Broomfield, a bedroom community halfway between Denver and Boulder that is evolving into a real city. But I always find myself looking southeast to Denver.
I’ve spent a lot of time in Lodo, at the Botanic Gardens, and at Lighthouse Writers Workshop, but Denver still holds mystery for me. I don’t know it in the same way I know Boulder after having lived there for eight years. So in this blog I’ll be seeking out what makes Denver the Big City in my heart. I’ll be exploring Denver, seeking out the little things that define Denver’s spirit.
Every month I’ll have a theme. I’ll write theme posts on Tuesdays and Thursdays.The theme for October will be the Uptown neighborhood. November continues the Uptown theme and then moves on to the Starz Denver Film Festival, which begins November 13. In Denver, I’ll write about shopping, especially for things made in Colorado or even in Denver.
On Mondays, I’ll write MonHaibuns. According to Contemporary Haibun Online, a haibun
is a combination of prose and haiku poetry, sometimes described as “a narrative of epiphany.” Like English haiku, English haibun is evolving as it becomes more widely practiced in the English speaking world.
Haibun is the Japanese name for seventeenth-century poet-monk Basho Matsuo’s poetic-prose travel journals, which were studded with haiku. The best known are The Narrow Road to the Deep North and The Hut of the Phantom Dwelling.
I wrote my first haibun on September 1, 2008, so please bear with me as I learn this form.
I hope to publish some haibun in journals someday. Perhaps I’ll try sending one out after I’ve been writing them for six months. I’d like to sell some of my articles about Denver to travel publications as well.
On Fridays, I’ll write about my pie-in-the-sky idea called Restoration Nation (An Economy that Restores).
This website features my published poetry and fiction.
I hope you enjoy this site.
You can reach me at beth AT bethpartin DOT com.
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By the way, I’m still defining what I mean by “Denver.” For now I’m excluding the northern suburbs such as Broomfield, Lafayette, Louisville, Superior, and Longmont (I wouldn’t dare call Boulder a suburb of Denver–that might start a riot in the republic), but I’m unsure of Northglenn and Westminster, not to mention Aurora, Centennial, Englewood, Lakewood, Littleton, and Wheat Ridge.
Part of my hesitation stems from having lived in Boulder and then moving to East Boulder County (before it became Broomfield County). There’s quite the divide there, so I don’t wish to make assumptions about what areas “Denver” encompasses.
