NPM 50 State Tour -- "While I Breathe, I Hope"

The East Coast has let us down, with four of the seven original states lacking poets laureate. But #8 is great! South Carolina became the eighth state on May 23, 1788.

South Carolina has one of the most beautiful state mottos I've found, "Dum spiro spero." While I breathe, I hope.

Marjory Heath Wentworth is SC's state poet laureate. She's a fellow NYU grad (go Violets! Unfortunately, yes, that really is our NYU nickname.)

And I just love this fact, from the SC Governor's website, "Ms. Wentworth teaches poetry in an arts and healing program for cancer patients and their families at Roper Hospital in Charleston, S.C."

Wentworth is a working mom, as you'll see in her poem, "A Normal Life."

A Normal Life
*****
Whatever that is.
I don't pretend to know.

Don't think I haven't
tried to fold the socks

in neat pairs and stacked
the chipped blue rimmed bowls

and matching plates
inside the cupboard.

For years I have fed
the black and white dog

who barks whenever
the doorbell rings.

Read the rest of the poem here.

Tomorrow we're continuing National Poetry Month 50 State Tour in New Hampshire.

Their state motto is, "Live Free or Die." I know because my friend Jennie lives in Concord, NH where they make New Hampshire shaped chocolate that says "Live Free or Die." Which doesn't sound as tough when you bite off the "Live Free" part.

Should make for some interesting poetry.