Thank you to the loyal readers and supporters of The Colorado Independent (2013-2020). The Indy has merged with the new nonprofit Colorado News Collaborative (COLab) on a new mission to strengthen local news in Colorado. We hope you will join us!

Visit COLab

News Poetry

News Poetry: Of Diesels and Subterfuge

Of Diesels and Subterfuge Ordinary Tuesday, meaning evil & good are pulling on different ends of the same serpent. I am hardly bothered by their charade anymore. I’ve got...

News Poetry: Poetry Lesson after the Las Vegas Shooting

Do not write the word heart. Like every overused word, its meaning has bled out, the way snowflake, repeated, dissolves into sound. And thoughts becomes nothing but the tongue thudding against...

News Poetry: Dear Congress

Dear Congress I never want to write another poem titled: again So I’m sending you a pen I never want to hear the cries the shattering bullets from an automatic...

News Poetry: Undocumented?

Every day wear sturdy shoes in case you need to run. Pack a small bag, keep it light and close. Sew money into the lining of your coat. Bid your...

News Poetry: A Tour of the Denver Basin

A Tour of the Denver Basin for Dr. Bob Raynolds 1. At the brick quarry near Parker, Paleosol rises to the surface: Ancient soil. Ocher and red. So old...

News Poetry: Wildfire Blues

The sun rises prison orange as if it feels Oregon and Montana blaze from its perch one astronomical unit away, but only our thin slip of atmosphere knows what...

News Poetry: The way they held each other

The way they held each other   in rows of cots and mattresses on the floor of cavernous arenas, the way an old man rested his gnarled hand on...

News Poetry: Come Back, Carl Sagan

Come Back, Carl Sagan We need your words more than ever tell your cosmic wisdom to the haters with whom lovers share earth’s common ground on the Pale Blue Dot. That's here,...

News Poetry: “Hegemony”

children are dying from the simplest things too much cold not enough water being a girl riding a bus to school the sun rises in one place leaves shadows in...

News Poetry: Charlottesville, Part II

TOP DOWN HATE By Karen Douglass Outrage is rage turned inside out. Our melting pot burns torches instead of candles in the dark. Unmasked killers march out of their bunkers. A car...