Early Life

Lance Morgan Loder was born on April 14, 1951 in Anchorage, Alaska, where his parents Walter Morgan Loder and Ednamae Fox Loder ran a fishing cannery. The family returned to Boise, Idaho – his mother’s hometown – where his father became chief internal auditor for Morrison Knudsen. As a result, Lance and his sister Lori had the experience of living in Indonesia for two years, 1961-1963, taught by their mother through the Calvert Course System. Returning to Boise, Lance completed his education before moving to California for several years, eventually finding his home and heart in Seattle.

The Poet

Lance always felt his life purpose was to read, write, and continually learn. He was a prolific writer who never published commercially – instead making 10 to 20 xerox copies of his annual collections for friends and family. His collected works of poetry carry the overall title Coyote University, his plan being to divide them into books by year, with separate volumes for lyrics and haiku. He lived and wrote in Seattle until his death on October 6, 2009, after a long battle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

This Archive

This archive was built in his memory by his friend Christian Swenson, with the help of Lance’s friends and family. It gathers 118 poems from his blog and manuscripts, offered here as Lance intended them – as food for those few for whom they are the only food in this world the day they meet up.