GILPIN - Christine Weeber has felt a connection to the mountains like no other place she’s lived before. She grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, before pursuing degrees at Colorado State University (CSU).

During her time there, she moved into a home filled with toxic mold, which made her ill. She moved into a rental with deodorizers in every room, but knew this was not a long-term option.

After graduating from CSU with an MA in cultural anthropology and a graduate certificate in women’s studies in 2005, she decided to move to a cleaner, less-toxic area.

She has since lived just outside Gilpin, also serving as a shamanic healing practitioner for Wisdom Hearth in Nederland. She loves the people, the community, and the connection to nature that they share and embrace.

She has written since elementary school, writing a play in 4th grade, bringing her friends in to perform it, and charging her neighbors five cents to see the performance. She started writing poetry at the age of 16, and she’s also written essays and fiction.

She is particularly enamored with poetry because, especially for her, poetic stanzas and metaphors convey paradox and complexity in an emotionally powerful way that linear prose sentences don't quite reach.

In 2008, she served as the poet-in-residence at the Gilpin County Public Library. Currently, she serves as the copy and poetry editor, as well as a development editor, for SAPIENS.org, a general-audience digital magazine focused on anthropology.

She has found herself inspired by poets such as Theodore Roethke, who have embraced a quiet and meditative style of writing. She finds it more important than ever for people to take a moment, step back, and absorb themselves in the moment and environment.

She hopes her poetry emphasizes the connection between humanity and nature, allowing readers to better understand how they work together. She also hopes that her poems encourage people to take a moment, observe the nature and wildlife around them, and better appreciate their role in the natural world.

For more information about Christine Weeber and her work, be sure to head to her website at christineweeber.com.