Barbara Ford writes poems in longhand, sitting in a striped chair that was once in the lobby of the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs. Soon after moving from the West Coast in 2005, she began reading poetry over the air at the Salida community radio station KHEN. Eight months later she inaugurated Poets and Minstrels, a weekly radio hour now in its twentieth year of offering contemporary, cross-cultural, and classical poetry to her listening audience.
Her poetry chapbook Once Familiar was published in 2016 by Finishing Line Press. Her 2022 collaboration with visual artist Roberta Smith, In Pursuit of Happenstance, a pairing of poetry and imagery, achieved finalist status in both the 2023 Colorado Book Awards and the 2023 North Street Book Prize. Barbara has presented her poetry at festivals and conferences throughout the state, and her poems have been published in various print and online journals, magazines, and anthologies.
Under the migration path of sandhill cranes, she lives with her husband Terry Orchard and a flock of backyard chickens in the crosswinds of two mountain passes in southwestern Colorado, where the prevailing night sounds are the call and response of coyotes, the sway of cottonwoods, and the Morse code of owls.
Paperback: 94 pages
Publisher: Kelsay Books (May 13, 2025)