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“This is my office. It has to do/with the work of seeing,
telling./ It has to do with wonder/and praise.” From words of Taylor Graham’s
first poem in her book Windows Of Time And Place. Poems of El Dorado County;
a guide book of the poet’s perceptions of the Sierra Nevada mountains and
foothills, its present and past. Graham’s fieldwork in search-in-rescue, her
background as a reporter, have informed much of her poetry with wide-ranging
observations and insights. She writes about landscapes and history, bonds
between generations common to the land. Her observations mark the area’s
reputation for the discovery of gold in 1848. Noteworthy people and places such
as the life and legend of Coppa Hembo, last chief of the Hill Nisenan, and
Wakamatsu, the first Japanese settlement in California, are highlighted
in poetic verse. These are pages of deep observation of the relationship of
people and their environment. Not just a matter of place but a reclaiming of the
homeland of a historical destiny, a literary work testifying to a search for
self. The poet ponders in her poem, Patience, Hwy 50 Wagon Train 2016,
“Might I learn patience/from horses, from ponderosa just standing.”
Lara Gularte, Poet/Writer Kissing The Bee
Within these pages lives breathing evidence of the boots-on-the-ground poet
Taylor Graham truly exemplifies. The first Poet Laureate of El Dorado County
could not have been anyone else. She is of the land and so by extension is her
work.
Taylor can whip up a poem in a moment on any subject that you throw at her,
yet she can also spend days crafting a single line. Writing is in her blood and
the act of writing itself, I believe, is an everyday necessity for her like
breathing or drinking water is to the rest of us. That necessity, that immediacy
is present in her work. The ability to make the commonplace grand and the grand
accessible is a rare talent. Taylor possesses this talent and it comes through
in her impressive body of work.
Taylor’s time serving the poetry community, and especially her time as Poet
Laureate will continue to be a yardstick with which, not only future Poets
Laureate will measure themselves, but also any poets that truly connect with
their environment and community. Her service to the written word in her
community has been immeasurable to so many. It has been an honor knowing her and
a pleasure enjoying her many works.
Andrew Vondershmitt Program Manager
Arts and Culture El Dorado
