Marie Harris, New Hampshire
Marie
Harris is the author of four books of poetry, the most recent of which
are Weasel in the Turkey Pen and Your Sun Manny: A Prose Poem
Memoir. Her children's book, G is for Granite: A New Hampshire
Alphabet, is just out from Sleeping Bear Press.
She has edited several anthologies, and her work has appeared in poetry collections and literary magazines. Her travel articles have been published in numerous newspapers and magazines including the New York Times Sunday Travel Section, the Boston Globe, the NH Sunday News, and Corvette Fever. She is the recipient of creative writing fellowships from the NEA and the NH State Council on the Arts. Harris has worked as a resident artist in public and private schools throughout New England for twenty-five years.
Appointment: 1999, by governor for 5 year term.
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THE POET LAUREATE GOES TO THE DUMP
Many years ago I went to a conference for Library Trustees. The guest
speaker built her talk around a single notion: that if every library trustee
made it a point to mention that he or she was a trustee at every opportunity,
it would go a long way toward fostering community interest and, eventually,
involvement in libraries. Similarly, I have come to realize that to say
I'm New Hampshire's poet laureate is not a self-aggrandizing gesture but
a way to draw people into considering what that might mean to them personally
and to their community as a whole.
I think a "public" poet—like a sculptor whose work appears
in a park or town square—can do a great deal to raise awareness of
the arts and to encourage citizen participation.
Student workshops are one way to promulgate the reading (and often writing poetry) of poetry. Libraries are excellent venues for poetry reading and discussions. Poems written for occasions and published widely in newspapers, on the web, in newsletters, etc. invite the general public into discussions of the arts in general and poetry in particular in dynamic ways. I think people need to see poets and other artists as beneficial to the health of society, integral to its expressions of celebration and grief. And if our neighbors see us poets taking our garbage to the dump, all the better.
–Marie Harris
© 2003 Poetry & Politics. All Rights Reserved.
