In the Wind: Busking Poetry on the Downtown Boulder Mall

by Jack Collom

IN THE WIND is a collection of poems written by Jack Collom while sitting on a bench at the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, Colorado. During the summer of 2006, the poet worked in collaboration with passers-by and wrote original, on-the-spot poetry on request, as a way to both interact with and analyze the Mall's thriving and pulsing community. Jack Collom was able to publish these spontaneous writings through a small grant by the Neodata Fund, which is administered through Boulder Country Arts Alliance.

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Jack Collom was born in Chicago in 1931 and grew up in nearby Western Springs, where he spent much of his boyhood walking in the woods and bird watching. After graduating from the Forestry School at Colorado A&M College, Collom joined the US Air Force and wrote his first poems in Tripoli, Libya. He lived in Germany a Zeitlang, then returned stateside and worked in factories for twenty years. He was an adjunct professor at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado and worked extensively with schoolchildren for thirty-five years. Collom was the author of twenty-four books and chapbooks as well as editor (with commentaries) of three books of writings by children. Collom was twice been awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, in part for his experimental nature writings. He had four grown children and was married to the writer Jennifer Heath.

Reviews

[Sarah]

By my step dad