Kentucky

State Poet Laureate

In 1926, Kentucky established a state poet laureate position, which is currently held by Silas House, who was appointed to a one-year term in 2023.

Type	Title	State
Literary Organization	Kentucky Council of Teachers of English/Language Arts	Kentucky
Poetry-Friendly Bookstore	Robie Books	Kentucky
Literary Organization	The Kentucky State Poetry Society	Kentucky
Landmark	Robert Penn Warren Birthplace Museum	Kentucky
Literary Organization	Green River Writers	Kentucky
Literary Organization	Kentucky Shakespeare	Kentucky
Literary Magazine	Appalachian Heritage	Kentucky
Small Press	Blair Mountain Press	Kentucky
Literary Magazine	The Louisville Review	Kentucky
Small Press	Sarabande Books	Kentucky

Notes on the Below

—For Mammoth Cave National Park

Humongous cavern, tell me, wet limestone, sandstone caprock,
bat-wing, sightless translucent cave shrimp,

this endless plummet into more of the unknown,
how one keeps secrets for so long.

All my life, I’ve lived above the ground,
car wheels over paved roads, roots breaking through concrete,
and still I’ve not understood the reel of this life’s purpose.

Not so much living, but a hovering without sense.

Ada Limón

2016

Tell Me a Story

[ A ]

Long ago, in Kentucky, I, a boy, stood
By a dirt road, in first dark, and heard
The great geese hoot northward.

I could not see them, there being no moon
And the stars sparse. I heard them.

I did not know what was happening in my heart.

Robert Penn Warren

1985

Kentucky River Junction

^{to Ken Kesey & Ken Babbs}

Clumsy at first, fitting together
the years we have been apart,
and the ways.

But as the night
passed and the day came, the first
fine morning of April,

it came clear:
the world that has tried us
and showed us its joy

was our bond
when we said nothing.
And we allowed it to be

with us, the new green
shining.

Our lives, half gone,
stay full of laughter.

Wendell Berry

1985

Poetry Near You

Kentucky

Recent & Featured Listings

Constance Merritt

bell hooks

Gayl Jones

Notes on the Below

Tell Me a Story

Kentucky River Junction

Poetry Near You

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Kentucky

Recent & Featured Listings

Constance Merritt

bell hooks

Gayl Jones

Related Poems

Notes on the Below

Tell Me a Story

Kentucky River Junction

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