It’s time for Page Two: News that might not make the front page for Wednesday, April 15, 2026.
Try asking the Fiddling Poet where he lives. You can’t pin him down.
Ken Waldman is the Fiddling Poet. He won’t say he lives in Anchorage. He says he has his “residency” there. He doesn’t stay in one place for very long.
He’s never home long enough to qualify for a PFD. Most of the time he’s travelling the country—and beyond. He’s playing folk music in Huntsville, Alabama. He’s giving a poetry reading in Atlanta, Georgia. He’s presenting at a conference in Queensland, Australia.
New York. Sitka. Albuquerque. SEattle. Juneau. Talkeetna. Queensland. Nome…
It’s like that Johnny Cash song: “I’ve been everywhere, man.”
Here’s the money quote: “I guess I say I’m a rambler.”
But Waldman is not just any rambler. He’s an accomplished poet and musician with 23 books and 12 CDs.
The Palmer Arts Council is bringing Waldman to Palmer tomorrow and Friday.
He’ll bring two fiddles and a mandolin to teach music at Swanson Elementary School. He wanted to bring his banjo, but it’s in his car somewhere down south.
He’ll teach poetry to teenagers. He’ll lead a workshop on the business of art. And he’ll perform his music and poetry at Lekker Coffee and Baking Company on Friday at 6:30 p.m.
Check out the details at Palmerarts.org.
Waldman started his artist journey in his 20s in North Carolina. He picked up the fiddle.
He moved to Seattle. He wrote a short story. He says it was pretty good, but not good enough. Romance troubles inspired another short story. That one, he liked. It got him into the Masters of Creative Writing program at Fairbanks in 1985.
Waldman continued to learn the fiddle and traditional music. He found himself writing poems about his music. The two art forms fed each other. And his audience grew.
An illness hit just when he started to get successful. He couldn’t walk. He couldn’t type. He couldn’t work. For ten long years, he struggled with this mysterious illness. He sought help wherever he could. Seattle. New York. Prescott, Arizona. By 1995, he could play fiddle again. He took up teaching and performing.
Then a plane crash put him out for a year or so. He published his first book, Nome Poems, in 2000.
He’s a fusion-fueled poetry generator. He writes poems wherever he goes. Lots of poems for adults, but poems for children, too.
Here’s a poem he wrote when he learned that the squirrel is the mascot for Swanson Elementary School. Our radio listeners won’t be able to see this, but it’s an acrostic poem. The first letter of each line spells out “Swanson Elementary.”
Swanson Elementary
by Ken Waldman
Squirrels are the best!
Watch them play. Gray
and brown. Small and fast.
Nothing can catch them.
See them climb trees
or run across dirt.
Nothing stops them.
Each of you are
like the busy squirrels.
Each of you have
many things to do
every day. And, yes,
nothing can stop you.
Trees, mountains, lunch,
and recess. Who loves to
read books? Tell me if
you love to run and play
The school board meets tonight at 6 p.m. at Willow Elementary School. We will stream the audio from our website, bigcabbageradio.org . Listen to In Summary with Emily Forstner tomorrow morning at 7:30 for a report on the meeting.
The first tour of the season at the Matanuska Experiment Farm is tomorrow at 3 p.m. Call the farm at 907-745-3360 for info.
The Trail Running Film Expo is at the Palmer Depot tomorrow. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the movie starts at 7. Come early to meet race directors and local running club groups.
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Tune in at 89.7 in Palmer, 89.5 in Sutton, 88.3 in Chickaloon and Glacier View or online at bigcabbageradio.org.(post on FB and Web/don’t read on air)
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This Page Two article was reported by David Cheezem and produced by yours truly, Lee Henrikson. If you have an idea for a Page 2 topic, please email us at page2@radiofreepalmer.org.
image credit: kenwaldman.com
