Poetry book serves as written memento for woman's grandsons

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

Aug. 11, 1996

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

A project that started out as a gift to be left behind for two grandsons has resulted in a published book by one of Bemidji's newest authors, Dolores Wiggins.

Wiggins, a 16-year office employee of the Beltrami County Highway Department in Bemidji, began writing poetry less than two years ago, and what started out a year and a half ago as a written memento for her two grandsons is now her first book.

"All I wanted was a book of poems so that my grandsons would have something I've done," Wiggins said.

"Grandma's Reflections," published by Carlton Press Corp. of New York, is a slim compilation of 36 poems, which were written since Wiggins wrote her first poem in October 1994.

What was that first poem?

"It's a poem about Christmas. I just love Christmas," she said. "I could sit at the top of the Rocky Mountains and write about snow and winter forever."

Wiggins said she was on her lunch break at work when she looked out a window and saw the winter's first snow fall. She was so inspired she skipped her lunch and sat at her desk writing a poem about Christmas.

"I thought, 'Man is that beautiful.' So, I put down my lunch and wrote out the poem," she said. "I wrote what I felt. It just came to me."

Although she was always a fan of literature in high school, the 51-year-old, life-time Bemidji resident said she had never thought about writing professionally until she showed her poem to co-workers, who thought it was "pretty good."

After encouragements from friends and family, Wiggins began writing more poetry, entering it in contests and submitting them to be published.

Several of her poems have been published before, but the book is her first experience with a collection of her own work.

She said the poems are feelings she has toward such things as animals, Christmas, prayer and nature in general. One of her favorites is a poem about prayer.

"Prayer is something that I feel is a necessary," she said. "The poem was something I felt in my heart."

Wiggins said she also has enough poetry to fill a second book that she is planning to publish, but she is going to approach it differently. She said she is going to do much of the work herself and maybe have a local printing shop help her with the publishing. This process might save her some money.

She had to pay the New York company to publish her first book, and Wiggins admits she will probably not make money from the book.

"It's been an adventure, and I wouldn't do it any differently, because it's been good experience," Wiggins said about the New York publisher. "To me it was worth it the one time."

"Grandma's Reflections" sells locally at Books Etc. and the Rainbow Card and Gift for about $9.