Illinois

State Poet Laureate

On November 2020, Angela Jackson was named Poet Laureate of Illinois. Jackson is the state’s fifth poet laureate, following Howard Austin, Carl Sandburg, Gwendolyn Brooks, Kevin Stein, and honorary Poet Laureate John Prine.

City and County Poets Laureate

Chicago, Illinois

In 2023, avery r. young was appointed the inaugural poet laureate of Chicago.

Elgin, Illinois

In 2024, Aron Ryan was appointed poet laureate through 2025.

Urbana, Illinois

In 2024, Ruby Mendenhall was appointed poet laureate of Urbana. Mendenhall will serve a one year term.

Type	Title	State
Literary Organization	Highland Park Poetry	Illinois
Small Press	University of Chicago Press	Illinois
Poetry-Friendly Bookstore	The Bookstore	Illinois
Literary Organization	Illinois Arts Council	Illinois
Small Press	University of Illinois Press	Illinois
Poetry-Friendly Bookstore	Books on First	Illinois
Literary Organization	Illinois State Poetry Society	Illinois
Conference	David R. Collins Writers' Conference	Illinois
Poetry-Friendly Bookstore	Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore	Illinois
Literary Organization	LitLine	Illinois

In a Breath

To the Williamson Brothers

High noon. White sun flashes on the Michigan Avenue asphalt. Drum of hoofs and whirr of motors. Women trapsing along in flimsy clothes catching play of sun-fire to their skin and eyes.

Inside the playhouse are movies from under the sea. From the heat of pavements and the dust of sidewalks, passers-by go in a breath to be witnesses of large cool sponges, large cool fishes, large cool valleys and ridges of coral spread silent in the soak of the ocean floor thousands of years.

Carl Sandburg

1916

Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight

(In Springfield, Illinois)
 
It is portentous, and a thing of state   
That here at midnight, in our little town   
A mourning figure walks, and will not rest,   
Near the old court-house pacing up and down,   
   
Or by his homestead, or in shadowed yards
He lingers where his children used to play,   
Or through the market, on the well-worn stones   
He stalks until the dawn-stars burn away.   
   
A bronzed, lank man! His suit of ancient black,   
A famous high top-hat and plain worn shawl
Make him the quaint great figure that men love,   
The prairie-lawyer, master of us all.

Vachel Lindsay

1914

The Chicago Poem

				       for Ted Berrigan & Alice Notley

the bridges of Chicago
are not the bridges of Paris
or the bridges of Amsterdam
except they are a definition
almost no one bothers to define
like life full of surprises
in what now looks to be the oldest
modern American city
o apparition of the movie version of
the future circa 1931
the bridges soon filled with moving lines
of people workers' armies
in the darkness of first December visit
along the water
bend of the Chicago River
the cliffs of architecture like palisades
at night the stars in windows
stars in the poem you wrote a sk

Jerome Rothenberg

1986

Poetry Near You

Illinois

Recent & Featured Listings

Edgar Lee Masters

Paul Carroll

Eugene Field

In a Breath

Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight

The Chicago Poem

Poetry Near You

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Illinois

Recent & Featured Listings

Edgar Lee Masters

Paul Carroll

Eugene Field

Related Poems

In a Breath

Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight

The Chicago Poem

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