50 State Tour: Wisconsin, Part II

We're visiting with Wisconsin Poet Laureate, Marilyn L. Taylor.

Marilyn, how has the region you live in affected your poetry?

Well, to put it very frankly, I'm not sure that it has. I simply can't claim that there is a distinctive Wisconsin "voice" or a typically Wisconsin supply of subject matter for poetry -- although I suppose there are a certain number of poets in this state who have indeed written about cheese and cows and the Green Bay Packers.

But for those of us who take our poetry very seriously and who publish both here and elsewhere, I would say that "regionalism" is a secondary element in our work.

Speaking for myself, I'd much rather write a poem about, say, the unpredictability of human nature than one about bucolic rural Wisconsin scenery. It's more a matter of the individual poet's motivations, I think -- and less a matter of where that poet lives.

Does Wisconsin have a poet-in-the-schools program?

Although many communities and organizations in Wisconsin support programs that bring poets to their schools, I am not aware of a state-wide Poet-in-the-Schools Program.

 Thanks for joining us on the 50 State Tour, Marilyn. You're a great ambassador for poetry!

Here is Marilyn L. Taylor's sonnet, "Reading the Obituaries." If you work in schools, you've thought about the issue Marilyn raises in the poem -- the death of once-popular names.

Reading the Obituaries

by  Marilyn L. Taylor

Now the Barbaras have begun to die,
trailing their older sisters to the grave,
the Helens, Margies, Nans -- who said goodbye
just days ago, it seems, taking their leave
a step or two behind the hooded girls
who bloomed and withered with the century --
the Dorotheas, Eleanors and Pearls
now swaying on the edge of memory.
Soon, soon, the scythe will sweep for Jeanne
and Angela, Patricia and Diane --
pause and return for Karen and Christine
while Susan spends a sleepless night again.
     Ah, Debra, how can you be growing old?
     Jennifer, Michelle, your hands are cold.

 Posted with permission of the author.

What a chilling final line. My gratitude to Marilyn L. Taylor for sharing such powerful sonnet with us.

California, here we come! You're up next on the 50 State Tour of poets laureate.

50 State Tour: Wisconsin

Lit lovers -- I'm so excited. We have a visitor on the 50 State Tour today.

Stop #30 is Wisconsin. Please welcome the Badger State's poet laureate, Marilyn L. Taylor to Author Amok!

Marilyn and I "met" through United Poets Laureate -- a blog set up by several of the state poets laureate, including our special guest.

Marilyn, as Wisconsin's state poet laureate, do you have a project?

Yes, I do have a project. When I applied for the two-year Wisconsin Poet Laureateship, I described it like this:

"My first priority as Wisconsin Poet Laureate will be to help spread the joys of reading, writing and listening to poetry through the state and beyond, directing it especially to those who may never have heard a Wisconsin poet read, never purchased a poetry collection that was written by one of  our own.

"My strategy to attract such people will involve creating events in which they could comfortably take part, both as participants and as listeners."

With that in mind, I have visited libraries, bookshops, centers for the arts, colleges, retirement communities, clubhouses, high school, middle schools and book clubs -- both in tiny little towns in the Wisconsin boondocks to the larger cities like Milwaukee and Madison. To date...50 different venues. I have about twenty more already scheduled for 2010.

What are the duties of a poet laureate in your state?

The position of Poet Laureate in Wisconsin is pretty open-ended, actually, concerning what we're "required" to do. The minimum expectation is that we present four readings or presentations in four different parts of the state each year. My two predecessors and I have all vastly exceeded that minimum.

Our visit to Wisconsin continues in the next post. I'll have more questions for Marilyn and a sonnet that I  know all of you teachers out there will relate to.