Maryland

State Poet Laureate

In 1959, Maryland established a state poet laureate position, which is currently held by Grace Cavalieri, appointed in 2018, who will serve a four-year term. Cavalieri is the author of several poetry collections, including Other Voices, Other Lives (Alan Squire Publishing, 2017).

City and County Poets Laureate

Emmitsburg

In 2019, Francis Smith became the poet laureate of Emmitsburg, Maryland. Smith will serve a two-year term.

Salisbury

In 2019, Nancy Mitchell was appointed poet laureate of Salisbury, Maryland.

Takoma Park

In 2022, Taylor Johnson was appointed poet laureate of Takoma Park. Johnson will serve a three-year term.

Type	Title	State
Small Press	Brick House Books	Maryland
Literary Organization	CityLit Project	Maryland
Small Press	Dryad Press	Maryland
Literary Organization	The Howard County Poetry and Literature Society (HoCoPoLitSo)	Maryland
Small Press	Johns Hopkins University Press	Maryland
Literary Organization	Maryland Center for the Book	Maryland
Small Press	Plan B Press	Maryland
Literary Organization	Maryland Writers' Association	Maryland
Literary Magazine	Poet Lore	Maryland
Literary Organization	CityLit WriteShops	Maryland

October 27, 1989

          And what did you want?
          To call myself beloved, to feel myself
                 beloved on the earth.
                       --Ray Carver
						
He was in a hotel in Baltimore
in a suburb near Johns Hopkins. He would

give a talk there, and they would pay him for it. 
It was night, and he was alone; sirens were racing

up and down the streets. The room was very large. 
Most of what he had wished as a boy was to write poems,

to have some power with the word, to be paid 
for talking. Don't smile, please.

Ed Ochester

2001

Catoctin Mountain Park

He who thus considers things in their first growth and origin, whether a state or anything else, will obtain the clearest view of them.
—Aristotle, Politics (translated by Benjamin Jowett)

Look out across
the ridges of trees
flushed red
as if holding
their breath
to blue distance,
a wager made
with the sky.

Look out over
the Appalachians’
eastern rampart,
then scrap the word for parts—
before, prepare, fortify—
to take possession of again.

Dora Malech

2016

Nothing and Something

It is nothing to me, the beauty said,

With a careless toss of her pretty head;

The man is weak if he can't refrain

From the cup you say is fraught with pain.

It was something to her in after years,

When her eyes were drenched with burning tears,

And she watched in lonely grief and dread,

And startled to hear a staggering tread.

It is nothing to me, the mother said;

I have no fear that my boy will tread

In the downward path of sin and shame,

And crush my heart and

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

1895

Poetry Near You

Maryland

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Edgar Allan Poe

Lucille Clifton

Sarah Arvio

October 27, 1989

Catoctin Mountain Park

Nothing and Something

Poetry Near You

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Maryland

Recent & Featured Listings

Edgar Allan Poe

Lucille Clifton

Sarah Arvio

Related Poems

October 27, 1989

Catoctin Mountain Park

Nothing and Something

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