Librarians, poets and community members flocked to the Durango Public Library last month to enjoy the company of Colorado Poet Laureate Bobby LeFebre. During a two-hour presentation, LeFebre filled the room with his words, wisdom and contagious charisma.
“I left his presentation a different person. His words impacted my heart (and) my mind and I think that collectively, that’s something the audience experienced,” said Spenser Snarr, an adult services librarian at the Durango Public Library. “It was an honor to have him, his insight, words, worldview – all of it was deeply impactful.”
LeFebre is Colorado’s eighth poet laureate and is the youngest individual and first person of color to hold the title. Initially inaugurated in 2020, LeFebre has spent the last four years traveling across the state in person and virtually, connecting with communities and advocating for poetry, literacy and the arts. June 30 marked his final reading as poet laureate.
“I’ve prepared an ambitious set list tonight because if it’s my last time I want to squeeze in as much as I can,” LeFebre told the Durango crowd.
As viewers settled into their seats, LeFebre launched into his performance, opening with a poem called “an exercise and ritual.”
The poem explored what it means to be an artist and a maker:
“We the Masons of re-imagining, the architects of metamorphosis, the repositories of our collective consciousness,” LeFebre read. “Bless it be the makers, the ones who set themselves ablaze willingly to warn the masses, the ones who traverse the unknown, giving light to the unseen.”
As the poem concluded, LeFebre’s demeanor shifted. His shoulders, which had been extended over the podium relaxed; his arms, which had been moving in sync with the imagery in the poem, fell to his sides; and his voice, which had been strong, authoritative and passionate, softened.
The crowd burst into applause, pausing only when LeFebre launched into the story prefacing his next poem.
Through the hourlong reading, LeFebre tackled a variety of topics including gun violence, colonization, immigration, COVID-19 and love.
LeFebre said his unconventional poem topics were a sign of the times.
“Fifty migrants just died in a truck at the border. And the Supreme Court is an active shooter and the police filled another Black man with 60 holes, and I am not a topical poet, but the elders have taught us that the job of an artist is to reflect the times,” LeFebre said, reading from a poem inspired by an experience where he was asked to read something “joyful,” “festival” and “celebratory,” and then criticized for declining to do so. “So I get on that stage and I do what I do the only way I know how and when I am done, someone tells me the position of poet laureate is supposed to be apolitical and I tell them maybe it is but I am not.”
As he grew near exhausting his set list, LeFebre took a pause in his readings to announce the creation of the Durango Poet Laureate Program that will launch this fall and designate one youth and one adult poet laureate of Durango.
After the announcement and completion of his readings, he opened the floor to questions.
When did you know you wanted to be a poet, asked an audience member.
LeFebre said he first was introduced to the world of poetry through hip-hop culture, which inspired him to start writing.
“I remember making connections when I listened to the music, I would hear the storytelling in this inventive way. It just always resonated with me. And then I started trying it; I was terrible,” LeFebre said.
He started taking writing classes in college. During that time, he got into slam poetry, which he said married his affinity for poetry and acting, helping him hone his performance skills and learn to be comfortable on stage.
Another audience member inquired about LeFebre’s method for composing poems.
“The process for me is very organic. It’s very emergent. I think so much about being a poet is not what you produce, it’s a way of seeing the world,” LeFebre said. “And sometimes that way of seeing the world ends up on the page and it becomes a poem, but if you are a poet you’re (always) making these connections. It’s a lens by which you see the world.”
As the evening drew to a close, audience members filed slowly out of the room, with a few stopping to exchange a private word with LeFebre.
“I told him, ‘You fill my heart, and I’m speechless,’” said Larry Bourland, a Durango poet who attended Friday’s reading.
lveress@durangoherald.com
