PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Eight local poets will touch hearts and challenge the intellect from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 27, at the historic Sun Valley Museum of Art’s Hailey House,

The poets will offer free readings at a home built in1884 by Homer Pound, the father of the acclaimed poet Ezra Pound who was born there in 1885. Ezra Weston Loomis Pound’s father came to Hailey,   appointed by the president as Register of Mines or register of the General Land Office for the Idaho Territory.

The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The late Roberta Horne McKercher, beloved local scribe, lived there until 1996 and welcomed the many writers and poets, including Allen Ginsburg, who made pilgrimages to the poet’s birthplace. In 1998 the Ezra Pound Association purchased the house and in 2005 gifted it to the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, now Sun Valley Museum of Art.

“I believe that this is the first time a group of local poets have read their poetry at the house to remind our community of the power and importance of poetry,” said Florence Blanchard, Bellevue writer, poet and founder of the Free Range Poetry Society. “Talented poets live here in the valley and I wanted to support them.”

Besides Blanchard, readers include Andrea Pierceall, who is currently pursuing an MFA in poetry; John Fox, popular “poet by disposition,” and seasoned writers Marshall Ralph, Cit Ananda, Sue Bailey, Tony Evans and Susan Fierman.  

PHTO