The Catoctin Forest Alliance and Catoctin Mountain Park were proud to welcome Carlos Reyes as the Poet in Residence from September 9-22, 2018.

An Irish-American poet and translator, Carlos Reyes lives in Portland, Oregon when he is not in County Clare, Ireland or traveling to the Canary Islands, Cuba, Ecuador, France, Greece, India, Panama, or Spain, giving readings of his own work and connecting with poets in other countries.

Carolyn Kizer said, “Mr. Reyes is one of our local and national treasures. His poetry is as clear and strong as his social conscience. One is always struck by his sensual and sensory qualities: the touch, taste, feel, color of things and his ability to capture a mood, a world in a handful of lines.”

Mr. Reyes has written nine books of poetry. He has been a Yaddo Fellow, a fellow twice at the Fundacion Valparaise (Mojacar, Spain) and awarded a fellowship at the Heinrich Boll Cottage (Achill Island, Ireland). He has been a Poet in Residence at Joshua Tree National Park, the Sitka Island Institute, Sitka, Alaska, Acadia National Park and Devil’s Tower National Monument. While he was in residence at Joshua Tree National Park, he wrote a poem that was later displayed in the new visitor center at the park.

While in residence at Catoctin Mountain Park, Mr. Reyes wrote 17 poems about the park and its structures. His whole two week stay was soaked with rain and his poems reflect that condition. He did a poetry reading at the park on September 20 and everyone there thoroughly enjoyed his work. He has a great talent for seeing what is around him and painting a verbal picture.  Below is one of the poems that Mr. Reyes wrote during his residency.

PAST
—Blue Blazes Whiskey Still

Mist condenses, drips from trees
a brook trout leaps for a mosquito
from water in a branch
of Big Hunting Creek

A single drop from copper
blue shadows creep like ribbons
of fog, bootleggers slipping
through the trees

On a windless day the scent
of earth, of moonshine rises
from around battered pot stills

you think steam, you
know it’s morning mist