Check It Out with Maryland's Poet Laureate
I recently had the pleasure to trade a few e-mails with Maryland's Poet Laureate Michael S. Glaser. He's held the position since 2004, and he has spent the years traveling the state, teaching the love of poetry, both his own and others.
Glaser is the author of A Lover's Eye, In the Men's Room and Other Poems, Being a Father and Fire Before the Hands. You can sample some of his poetry at his Web page on the St. Mary's College of Maryland site.
So what does an award-winning poet read? Glaser names his favorites, "William Stafford, Lucille Clifton, Mary Oliver, Derek Walcott, Hafiz and Rumi, Naomi Nye, Denise Levertov, Langston Hughes, Li-Young Lee - ah but there are hundreds and with every day and every mood my favorite poets and favorite poems change!"
I had planned to write up an entry as I usually do, but -- shockingly enough -- I feel the man's words come across much more powerfully without my help. For more information about poetry in Maryland, read on.
"What draws me most profoundly to poetry is that, for me, good poetry is invitational -- it invites thoughtful and engaged contemplation and conversation, and in that way it can even become transformational. I try to honor that by structuring my talks and readings in a way that enables people to listen carefully, reflect and then to participate in a discussion of the ideas and feelings that the poems they have been listening to evoked.
"I think that all arts are similarly invitational, but poetry is the form that best suits me because I find that to write poetry is to engage in one of the most personal and profound acts of freedom I know. Each and every choice one makes in writing a poem requires a deep sense of personal integrity. When it is all working, reading or writing good poetry engages me in the life of the moral imagination, and that is an experience that I aim for and treasure.
"There are similar experiences in all art forms (and I would define "art form" broadly, for engaging in, living/loving life fully and intensely is an art form to be sure!). For me personally, however, poetry helps me live with a sense of wonder. It helps me stay connected to the sacred otherness of the world in which I live and the sentient people and things with whom I share life on this fragile planet.
"As I have travelled around the state, I have found a genuine hunger among many people for the kinds of engaged, humane thinking and authentic use of language that poetry both invites and offers. The opportunity to talk with others, to share my favorite poems and poets with them ... the opportunity to engage with Marylanders, both young and old in thinking about the blessings and choices our lives offer us has been for me a tremendous privileged and honor.
"My term as State Poet Laureate is soon ending ... and the governor has appointed a committee to determine who the next Poet Laureate of Maryland will be (more information can be found on the Web Page of the Maryland State Arts Council.) My work as a writer and speaker and workshop leader will, of course continue, but I do look forward to a less intense schedule and more time to focus on the great joy I get from being deeply engaged in my own writing."
While she always preferred The Hardy Boys to Nancy Drew, 
