Linda Monacelli-Johnson is a poet with Cleveland roots who has lived in New Mexico since 1977. She has published Campanile (Drummer Press), Weathered (Sunstone Press) and Lacing the Moon (CSU Poetry Center). Inspired by nature and the physical landscape, Linda's poems are rich with imagery of the Southwest. Her work is included in 200 New Mexico Poems, an online anthology to celebrate that state's centennial this year, and The Dream Book: An Anthology of Writings by Italian American Women. Linda will read a single long poem, titled "Vigil." This poems is dedicated to her father, Walter, who died ten years ago at the age of 88. Begun in 1996 and written in 44 parts, "Vigil" entwines the author's visits with her father during his long illness and the comfort and insight she found in bird watching--both in Florida, where her father lived, and at home in New Mexico. In June 2004, selected parts of "Vigil" and reproductions of paintings by Whitman Johnson, the poet's husband, were published in the online magazine Santa Fe Poetry Broadside. Thompson Peak (detail), Oil on Canvas by Whitman Johnson