About

Hi, I'm Lou

I practice writing and Taiko drumming in Los Ranchos, New Mexico.

I derive inspiration for my poetry and prose from the natural world, folklore and mythology.

At my Wise Crane Dojo, I offer Taiko classes that promote wellness and healthy aging, plus rhythmic fun.

In addition to prose, writing poetry is a favorite occupation for me. It takes me a long time to gestate and write a novel. The quicker, more in-the-moment experience of writing poetry balances my other writing efforts. Writing poetry hones my ability to observe and express with economy and clarity.

Poetry and Storytelling

I have loved stories since birth because my grandmother, “Maw Maw,” poured them into my ears and therefore into my heart from the time I was born. She lived with us and we shared a room until her death when I was nine years old.

Prose Poem For My Grandmother

After you killed the rattlesnake in the garden with the hoe, you told me that it had to be done. You had talked with the snake, tried to convince it to live elsewhere. The rattlesnake made its choice to live within people space and to threaten danger, you explained to me.

And when the bull snake came, you welcomed it with ceremony and thanked it for guarding against raiders to your bounteous crop. I did not know then how exceptional your conversations were.

The garden flourished that year as you labored and sang the songs handed down to you from Appalachian ancestors. In its center were sunflowers making a golden crown rewarding your hard work under the hot south Texas sun.

This year I grew sunflowers for the first time since helping you in that childhood garden long ago. Each morning I tended them with loving care, watering them as guard against the hot days, breathing their earthy aroma into my soul as guard against the world's sorrows.

I have gazed into their seeded hearts and known the spiraling forth of their fertility as the reflective song of my soul and the recurring gift of your touch on my life.

There are no rattlesnakes in my garden, only a small garter snake snuggled beneath the stalks and your memory among the petals of sunlight, your song rustling the green leaves of my heart.

More about Lou Liberty

Poet, novelist, storyteller, and historian, Lou Liberty, is a long time resident of Los Ranchos, New Mexico. She has twice received National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships funding research and writing in Europe which resulted in two limited edition books of photography and poetry.

Always versatile in approach, Lou edited KUNM's "First Times", short stories published on radio, and has presented her poetry on "Women's Focus" and Don McIver's "Spoken Word Hour", also at KUNM. Lou has been a repeat guest on “Back Roads Radio”, an hour of original storytelling produced by Judy Goldberg.

Lou's poetry has been published in Albuquerque through several Herland anthologies as well as The Rag, one of Albuquerque's first independent poetry publications dedicated to women’s work.

She was selected for the debut issue of The Harwood Review and was a frequent featured reader on Dial-a-Poem. Lou was a regular contributor to Central Avenue. Nationally she has been featured in venues that include Bark Magazine, “The Poetry Wall" at the Cathedral of St. John The Divine, in New York City, and other national zines. Lou has performed and her work has been anthologized throughout the Southwest.

Her poetry book, Bearing Witness: 25 Years of Refuge, was awarded the New Mexico Book Award. Nature artist, Margy O’Brien’s watercolors complete the collection.

In Albuquerque Lou has been featured in such diverse arenas as the Alibi Downtown summer celebration and the Herland anniversary celebration at the Outpost Performance Space. She is often the “gift” at birthday parties and other festivities where she performed as a poet and storyteller. Her solo readings have included the presentation of her chapbook, Harvest In A Dragon Year at Bound To Be Read and Page One. Lou was also selected by Bookworks as a reader for several National Poetry Month events.

Lou has been a featured reader for "Don McIver And Friends" and "50+, Poets At Their Half Century" at the Blue Dragon Coffee House. Her one woman performance, “Skinny Dipping In The Cauldron,” was debuted at Ptv Studio in Albuquerque. She has toured with this program in Texas and California.

Anthologized on Herland’s spoken word CD, Leaving Eden, and Ptv’s CD, Poetic Democracy, Lou has two solo CD’s, Five Steps To Compassion, and Skinny Dipping In The Cauldron. She is currently working on her third CD, Jitterbugging On The Crumbling Edge of Doom.

Lou will kick off the new season of AirDance ArtSpace’s “Poets Night Out” on September 24, 2005.

In addition to writing novels, magazine articles and poetry, Lou has been a critique reader for the Southwest Writers' Workshop and a guest editor of the Rag after she passed on the administrative position to fellow poets.

She has taught creative writing for Sandia Prep School, the Special Projects Program at UNM, and the Rio Grande Writing Project. Lou’s local history of New Mexico, Constant Possum: The History of Sandia Prep School has received many accolades. Her novel, Pappy Shell And The Jenny Mule, is a Kindle publication.

When not writing, Lou continues her work as a taiko musician and teacher at her Wise Crane Taiko Dojo.

Lou Liberty is an independent publication launched in September 2024 by Lou Liberty. If you subscribe today, you'll get full access to the website as well as email newsletters about new content when it's available. Your subscription makes this site possible, and allows Lou Liberty to continue to exist. Thank you!