Kay Ryan is the latest Poet Laureate announced by the Library of Congress. She is the 16th Poet Laureate, and I am thrilled that our new poet laureate has experienced a calm and quiet career. It's time for her to come out into the light and inspire budding poets and bring poetry to the forefront of the literary world.
I often wondered what the purpose of the Poet Laureate is, but according to Wikipedia, the poet laureate is called upon to write poems for state occasions and attend government-sponsored functions, like the Washington D.C. Book Festival this September.
Some familiar names will be at this year's book festival: Tiki Barber from the NFL, Dionne Warwick, Bob Schieffer, Cokie Roberts, and Neil Gaiman.
I hope that with each new poet laureate, poetry garners greater standing in the literary community. Unfortunately, it does not look like any other poets will be attending the D.C. Book Festival except Kay Ryan.
Jul 20, 2008
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2 comments:
I didn't realize you were going to post that here, too. LOL So here's what I said on your other blog, since I don't have anything new to say on the subject:
I didn't realize there was big demand for poems for state occasions. LOL
I think the poet laureate just likes having the designation. It's not like they do anything with it, like promote poetry or something. It just makes them sound good.
I honestly have no idea...it's not like the media actually discuss what they do once they become poet laureate...they just tell us who the new one is.
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