Poetry is everywhere. Poetry is in the way we speak or sing or the ways we imagine. Poetry offers space and possibility. And poetry is the best kept open secret we have. Because as it turns out, poetry can sometimes have the unfortunate reputation of not being for everyone.
Thankfully, state poets laureate are working to change this perception and helping people find the magic and meaning in poetry. New Mexico State Poet Laureate, Lauren Camp, is no exception. Now midway through her three-year term, she’s made it her mission to traverse the vast reaches of the state to build community and poems.
“My goal in this role has been to actually go out and meet with as many people as I can. Bring poetry to them and bring them to poetry,” Camp says. “I wanna go to as many places as I can because the response has been, just so incredible where people are saying either they’ve never known what a poem is, they’ve never met a poet, they’ve never written a poem or a line of poetry, and so it makes me wanna just keep going out there and introducing people to poetry.”
Camp’s passion for poetry is infectious. Whether making poems as collages or writing about goatheads or night skies, her poetry invites readers and other poets and would-be poets in.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Lauren Camp’s website
In Old Sky: Poems Inspired by the Grand Canyon
New Mexico Epic Poem Project/New Mexico Arts
Article: New Mexico’s Queen of Poetry, El Palacio, spring 2023
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