Loveland Lake
Rice paper kites
climb toward the sun.
Wind stills, kites dive,
tangling in trees
pregnant with spring buds.
Kite tatters echo
splashes boys make
throwing pebbles
in the lake. Kite tails
flutter rag fingers,
begging to fly.
Wild geese rise,
flaunting their wings
to tease the broken kites.
Kite and Hills -- Pernille Harttung
Rice paper kites
climb toward the sun.
Wind stills, kites dive,
tangling in trees
pregnant with spring buds.
Kite tatters echo
splashes boys make
throwing pebbles
in the lake. Kite tails
flutter rag fingers,
begging to fly.
Wild geese rise,
flaunting their wings
to tease the broken kites.
Kite and Hills -- Pernille Harttung
Loveland, Colorado, was founded in 1866 and named after William A. H. Loveland, the founder of the Colorado Central Railroad. The nearby lake was created in 1894 from a swampy depression called Hays Lake and filled with spring runoff in 1895. Its primary purpose was for agricultural irrigation at first but it is now a primary water supply for Greeley, as well as a popular recreational site. In 1947 Loveland's postmaster Elmer Ivers created a remailing program to promote the city: people from around the world were encouraged to send Valentine's Day cards to Loveland to get a hand-stamped cachet and verse and a specially designed postal cancellation (postmark); on average it re-mails more than 160,000 cards from some 110 countries. The city's Chamber of commerce chairman Ted Thompson designed the first cachet ("A Valentine Greeting from Sweetheart Town, Loveland, Colorado" with a heart pierced by an arrow over the Rocky Mountains), which was used for the first two years and then, at the request of collectors, was replaced by a new one every year, selected via a contest. Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians with Kenny Gardner and The Lombardo Trio had a hit record ("There's a Lovely Lake in Loveland" with lyrics by Ralph Butler and Stanley J. Damerell and music by Tolchard Evans) in 1950. Lombardo played the song on his radio show on Valentine's Day and received a goatskin scroll from the city proclaiming him mayor for the day. That month "Collier's" magazine, with a circulation of some 2.5 million, also featured an article ("Sweetheart of a Town")about Loveland by Oren Arnold. Every February the city's roads are lined with personalized wooden hearts which people and organizations buy.
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