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A Formalist Poet at the Open Mic

Part IV: Becoming a Poet Laureate

by Daniel Kemper

Inflationary times. The invisible hands of markets or of governments have synchronized in some secular mysterium to take something from me. They’ve synchronized so that their stuff is worth more than my stuff. If some declared this, but not others, I’d have options. Inflation, though, is when there is this uncannily synchronized action. Their houses, cars, restaurants, performance halls, poetry centers are worth more than my stuff, my currency. By their joint action, they demand more of my stuff to engage with their stuff. Goods and services. And poetry.

An aggravating, but all too human effect of this is that now everyone boasts of driving a fifty-thousand-dollar car and owning a million-dollar home with a commensurate increase in self-importance. Poets are not wealthy people, as a rule, so among the many effects of this situation, poets have a harder time making ends meet and so have less time for poetry. In my opinion, this creates a decline in quality, but the important thing is to notice what inflation really takes away from you: time.

Currency is congealed time, time you spent working, sweating, rubbing your forehead, straining and suffering. Now that it requires more currency, it takes away more of the time you had committed and have to commit to reach the same result.

Preparing for poetry readings takes time. The preparation to deliver from memory, with just a hint of theatrics, rather than to do the mumbled, top-of-forehead read is one commitment of time, but by far the greatest commitment is fashioning a poem worth doing that for. Lately, my preparation has included chores for Patrick to help the SPC run well. Taking links out of emails and building consolidated lists for references, checking mailing lists, setting out the coffee and snacks and so on, then the reverse of that when the reading is over.

A funny thing leapt out at me during those chores. I noticed that the Poet Laureate of California, Lee Herrick, gave a reading during National Poetry Month. And the day after, the Poet Laureate of Sacramento. And on the night that I was doing those chores a woman from Stockton, its Poet Laurate was going to be featured. Apparently she’d held the post a long time, but now was transitioning out. Then something NOT there leaped out at me: Dana Gioia, former Poet Laureate of the United States (Not only a formalist, but one of The New Formalists!), had never been poet Laureate of California. That struck me as wrong—having an athletic background my instinct looks for a tournament structure and you can’t play in the finals if you haven’t played in the quarterfinals, for example. Of course, maybe it’s more like government and you can be president without being a governor. Or maybe it could be like getting a bye in a tournament. (I wish.)

I digress.

I needed to digress. You will to: There are twenty-three Poets Laureate in California. I do not mean twenty-three people who are or have been—that would be quite prestigious indeed. I mean twenty-three different cities, counties, and of course the state itself, with a position of Poet Laureate. This amused me, but it stressed me out, too. I wasn’t sure why at first.

Inflation. Now almost every poet, it seems, has a million-dollar home and a fifty thousand dollar car, as it were. Not one formalist. Not one. Not one whose writing you could not take, cut chunks out, rearrange, do anything to and have any of their audience be any wiser. My second favorite on the list is “Poet Laureate of Lodi.” Lodi! As in “Stuck in Lodi Again,” of Creedence Clearwater Revival fame. To be fair, the city has ballooned in population because of the wine industry… to sixty-thousand.

It’s not just the title inflation though, nor the concrete handle this really lets me put on something that has seemed intuitively obvious, if murky, for years. And actually, perhaps it’s a bit selfish of me, but it’s not even concern about how all of this is established. Towns don’t really talk to each other much. There has to be an organizing power for something like this. Rats in the rafters, as it were. But sadly, selfishly, what causes me stress is the feeling that they have taken something from me like inflation does. And they have. The same as inflation, what they have taken is time. My time. My congealed life.

Perhaps, it is only the complaint of the Jazz musician against pop music. Perhaps it’s the classical musician’s complaint as well. Or of the aristocratic duchess seeing Jane Housewife’s cubic zirconium or manufactured diamonds shine as much as her real diamonds, or that of a grand dame losing the attention of her husband to a maid who forgot to button every button. Or the resentment of the infantryman for the postman.

This is not the parable of the workers though. It would be as if, after the payment, the prices for everything were raised so that none of the workers received a true reward.

I guess it doesn’t have to be all that serious though. D.R. Wagner, a multitalented man who passed away suddenly this December, lived in Locke, California for the last part of his life. It’s about twenty or so minutes from where I live and type this essay. D.R. Wagner was gregarious, witty, had various talents, and a good sense of humor, too. He was Locke’s Poet Laurate. Lock is not even a township; its population is almost up to one hundred.

But apparently, there’s an opening for Poet Laureate now.

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Daniel Kemper is a former tournament-winning wrestler, a black belt in traditional Shotokan karate and a former infantryman. He has a BA in English, an MCSE (Systems Engineering), and an MBA.  He quit a 25-year IT career in 2023 and went all-in on poetry. Since then, he’s had works accepted for publication at The Blue Unicorn, The Lyric, thehypertexts.com, The Creativity Webzine, Amethyst Review, Rat’s Ass Review, Formalverse, The Literary Hatchet, the Society for Classical Poets, and Ekphrastic Review. He was an invited presenter at the 2023 national PAMLA conference and will preside over the Poetics Panel at PAMLA 2024. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize by The Blue Unicorn and has been the featured poet at the historic Luna’s Cafe and the Sacramento Poetry Center. 


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17 Responses

  1. Roy Eugene Peterson

    This was a fascinating read. I began thinking about hot to establish the position of poet laureate in a town. I presume I would have to somehow get it placed on the agenda of the town council, perhaps meet with the mayor, distribute some of my books, and attend the Town Council meeting, assuming I can get it on the agenda. Maybe it would work in two towns for me–my hometown and the one I live in. Oh, yes, there is the small community in another state where I grew up to the age of 13 before my family left. If I decide to pursue these, look for a triple poet laureate in the near future.

    Reply
  2. Daniel Kemper

    At risk of being accused of “dragooning” you…

    I think it would be awesome!

    (Above, I’m just teasing. I don’t back down from the, “Follow me!” aspect though. –Ironic, since you outrank me like Everest to Mt. Diablo. 🙂 )

    One observation: I have noticed that the organizational aspect is very draining and tends to slow my creativity.

    Anyway, thank you for the read, for rolling with my gallows-humor closing, and encouraging thoughts.

    Reply
    • Roy Eugene Peterson

      The more I think about it, the more feasible it seems to be.

      Reply
  3. Nancy Brady

    Roy,
    That is exactly how our small city started a Poet Laureate program. One poet went to one of the city council’s meetings and suggested a program in which a local poet, who had a body of poetry of his own, promoted poetry within the community. Early events included poetry programs (bringing in poets from other locales) at a citywide local venue each month during the summer.
    Over time, as other poets laureate were chosen, and each poet brought something different to the table. Some taught poetry forms; others wrote poems for civic events.

    Eventually, the local library took on the poet laureate program. The most successful program was a grassroots call-out (contest) for poets within the local zip code to submit poems they had written. They were judged anonymously by a panel of judges (the library director, two former poets laureate, and two community members who just like poetry), based on a set of rubrics. Each poem was read by one poet (to avoid personalities being judged) to the judges, and then each judge had a sheet on each poem, allowing them to re-read the poems and judge them according to the rubrics. The first year 22 poets submitted and had poems chosen for the anthology. Depending on the combined scores of the judges, 40 poems were accepted based on a particular cut-off point determined by the judges. The results (and anthology) were presented at a program at the library one evening, and the room was packed.

    With the success of the first year (and some judges were skeptical to begin with that there were (unknown) poets who were actively writing, but I digress), the annual contest continued for a total of five years with each successive year the number of poets (including some youth) and poems increased. An anthology of the poems were produced each year, the results announced, and poems were read by the poets. In fact, the program was promoted at one of the state’s library council’s meetings for a way of promoting grassroots writing.

    Although the five-year “Poetry From a Zip Code” program has ended, the library still puts out a literary journal, which includes poetry and short stories, for the local area.

    For what it is worth…Nancy Brady

    PS. I have never been a poet laureate, despite multiple publishing credits in journals and anthologies around the world.

    Reply
    • Roy Eugene Peterson

      I really appreciate your response that may expand my bag of tricks should I decide to go ahead. That sounds like an excellent program.

      Reply
      • Daniel Kemper

        Poets Laureate is far more about promotion than a victor’s crown, as I’m sure is evident. It’s about business and politics. If the city is not super tiny, the duties tend consume the poet and they can hardly write anything good during their tenure.

        Problem is, the appointment, is more like a particular tree spirit than it is the granting the status of demi-god, though everyone wants to believe the latter.

        It would be cool if it could all get organized something like soccer, with different leagues and levels.

    • Daniel Kemper

      Hi Nancy!

      Great contribution, insightful, ironic. To comment on your non-laureate status, it does make it evident that the point isn’t truly like a victor’s crown, but a promotional position. I mean if it was a victor’s crown, you’d have one, right?

      It makes the inflation frustrating, but the purpose is a good one. Eventually, the islands of this archipelago will start coordinating more efficiently for better market penetration in books etc.

      Reply
      • Nancy Brady

        Daniel,
        I have no desire to be the poet laureate of my city (or anywhere else for that matter); however, I like the idea of a poet who writes poems for civic occasions as several of the poets laureate did (one of which wrote poems because he was inspired to celebrate and/or sympathize with events happening without regard for “fame,” but I digress).
        Frankly, I added the postscript to say that although I am a poet, not all poets in our small city become poets laureate, but the poets who “received the honor” had to forge a path of their own. Some did a better job of it than others. Knowing myself as I do, I’d probably make a mess of it. The programs when the poet laureate program was more active certainly helped elevate poetry, and that was a good thing.

  4. Margaret Coats

    Daniel, thanks for noticing and revealing the inflationary glut of poets laureate. I am lucky to be too lazy to spend my time on the process. Indeed, I rarely enter a contest and never pay attention to challenges. You are quite right that these things take time that otherwise could be creatively employed. I try to be sure that I really want to turn my time and creativity in the direction I go. Contests usually and challenges always go where someone else is hoping for followers.

    You seem to be in error regarding Dana Gioia. He was in fact Poet Laureate of California; I went to one of his readings while he held that position. Although it paid nothing, he had decided to do a reading in every county of the state, and I believe his two-year term was extended to allow him to finish. That project was enormously time-consuming and expensive, as he had traveling time and costs in addition to preparation time. Friends and associates helped, and he did get to sell his books as well as promote poetry in general.

    Gioia made a good suggestion about readings where a single poet is featured, namely, to read some poetry other than his own. That idea, of course, can’t apply to the open mic, since one’s time at the mic is usually strictly limited. But it does provide an opportunity to get to know the poet and his work, when listeners hear poetry from the past that influenced him, or that was written by his associates in the present, or that was chosen as a courtesy to the locality where the reading takes place.

    Reply
    • Daniel Kemper

      No, not “seem”, totally in error. One of my periodic, patented bellyflops. I guess the timer just went off about then. That’s very weird (of me, not you). I searched out the list–and remember the tour. I’d assumed it was part of his US Poet Laureate status– a term at which I heard he rescued the NEA. Beware Poets with MBA’s!

      About the OM and reading work other than one’s own– I agree with you. Feature poets often accompany open mics so, it might be applicable.

      I’d also like to hasten to call out Patrick Grizzel, whose work at rescuing the SPC can’t be underestimated. He does so much, and yet rarely reads his own stuff. Occasionally, like last night, the crowd will corner him into performing, and he’ll pull the old guy kung fu and pick a poem he thinks the crowd needs exposure to, and at the end, not only let everyone know that he wasn’t the author, but he’ll also give a mini talk about the author, too.

      The soil’s there; the seeds are there…

      Also, I agree with you about contests, etc. How rare to have a rubric by which they’ll be judged. I need to enter a few for a bit b/c of market demands of name recognition, if I intend to bring the books out in the fall that I intend to bring.

      But as for you and a few others here, I’m reminded of my old karate teacher and the people who I encountered as a result. The real masters don’t compete. It’s simply too boring and can’t compete with what is gained in study and practice. I mean, there’s a whole layer of people out there who’s level is just other worldly–boxing champions of the world, MMA, etc.. just hacks. Just not able to understand how far beyond where they are that the real masters live.

      Thanks for reading my essay and connecting with me about it in so many good ways.

      Reply
  5. Julian D. Woodruff

    Daniel, there can’t be too many poets, or poets laureate, it seems. I knew something of Lodi (pronounced Lo-die, unlike its Italian sister city), having played in a little orchestra there during the ’80s and ’90s. That town needed a poet laureate as badly as Hadleyburg or River City, IA. There were poetry readings, I bet–probably held at the library, where there were also regular art exhibits and concerts of one sort or another (I played in one such). These events (though not the orchestra) probably continue to this day They certainly do if the prominent residents are as energetic as they were back then.
    My wife later served as Supervising Librarian at Lodi PL for 10 years. She and other library staff, though, were as a rule merely facilitators of such cultural events. (When I show my wife my poetry, she usually says little beyond “I don’t have a poetic mind.”)
    On the dearth of formal poets: maybe there’s one (or more) up at Oregon House, the artists colony north of Sacramento (where I also played a few orchestral concerts); but I don’t know that folks there would see the need for a poet laureate.

    Reply
  6. Daniel Kemper

    Holy crap, you mean you were actually “Stuck in Lodi, again,” the classical music version? lol

    Thanks for reading this and connecting with me about it.

    I know Lodi well, I worked at the Trinchero Family Estates (dba Sutter Home Wines, 100+ labels, 4th largest in USA, etc., etc.) state of the art wine production facility there for seven years.

    Because a scientist identified the soil type and sunshine there are virtually identical to Napa Valley, Lodi has really been on a steep growth curve for some time now. Check your labels, much of what you think is Napa Valley is actually Lodi. They’re working hard to become a sort of “Napa East” if you will.

    To confess, I like the idea of a position for poets, and local buy in via gov’t and biz, I just wish they wouldn’t ruin the currency of the word “Laureate.” Fix that, and ensure that there’s one for every county and any city that wants one.

    Hmmm… They’d probably scream about having the “Laureate” title removed, but probably something like “Poet of the City” or “Poet of the County” would be a good start. Poet Laureate of CA seems appropriate to me, given CA’s enormity–large as most countries, physically and in terms of population, fifth largest economy in the freaking world, etc.

    Reply
  7. Jonathan Kinsman

    Greetings from your northern neighbor (Plumas Lake). I was appointed by the Board of Supervisors (from the recommendation of the YS Arts Council board) to be the Poet Laureate [PL] from both counties in 2012. I served until 2020.

    During my time, God-is-my-Judge, I wrote occasionally on occasion (city and county events; holidays; elegiac odes to community icons) and never sought emolument, except in repeated pleas of a hogshead of ale from the local Kommissar of Brewers. But, regardless, I plodded on, and developed through public readings (yes, with His Highness Dana Gioia, and points north and south) a coterie of fellow travailers of Parnassus. Meeting in pubs and homes, I led workshops on prosody, forms and their subtle effects on music to the masses in these classes, all lads and lasses. Ah, the agony of the feet!

    This was the remuneration, these were the line preservers thrown to save those “drowning in droubt” (sorry, like GBS, I like to quote myself). A Sweetheart by the Bay, Connie Post, and former PL, started a contact list back in 2018 and this has led to further forays afield for fun and festive Formalists such as moi.

    Keep writing Daniel, and though I was an LTC and thus exempt from heroics, I recognize the “Follow Me” as our motto and as what our Lord commanded (for those of us who practice Christian Faith).

    Poetry as the praise of God and His creation, as capturing in form a glimpse of this glory and beauty is why we write and why we should encourage all others to hone their speech and prose. We are the poets, we are those who hear the music in words arranged purposely and with intent. There are enough narcissistic nabobs nattering about these parts, we must adapt and overcome.

    Good series of essays, young man, and may we meet this side of Paradise.

    Jonathan Kinsman

    Reply
    • Daniel Kemper

      Thank you, sir, for your service, military and artistic alike. Meter is like Christianity these days. To mangle a quote, “It’s not been tried and found wanting; it’s been found hard and left untried.” Although meter doesn’t have to be that hard. The amazing thing is how tone deaf the average poet is to it. They really need time to actually hear it, then they slowly start piecing it together. Just gotta keep showing up. The worst thing lately doesn’t seem to be any nefarious opposition, just chaos itself.

      Reply
  8. James Sale

    Let’s always remember, as we consider the way of the world, that Dante craved the laurels – to be the laureate of Florence – but was denied this. Shakespeare too did not become James I’s poet laureate, but the fine poet Ben Jonson did. Jonson is very great, but Shakespeare is much greater. In the world of poetry it is very infrequently a question of talent – at the time of rewards and appointments – that counts; it is always political. That is what the Muse calls the poets to; it is pointless wishing otherwise.

    Reply
    • Daniel Kemper

      James, you make a great and sobering point about accolades and contests. At least they seem to be a motivating force. I do not like the CV thing either, the I-love-me lists of publications, etc. but they play a similar role in the whole thing. To me, growing up in isolation left me with a strong asocial core. I look at a poem and think, “This is not one whit better or worse for any other awards or information about the author at all.” Empirically though, I do notice that few are as weird as me and that it does impact who reads you and at what depth they’ll give your words a chance. Just a different level of audience consideration, I guess.

      Thanks for the reminder and historical insight.

      Reply
  9. Chris

    The poet laureate position in Sanford is currently vacant.
    If we connected, you could get an application from city hall.
    If there’s not one, I’ll make one up
    It will have to be submitted to the committee, in triplicate
    There will, of course, be an application fee

    Reply

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