New Jersey

There is no state poet laureate appointed in New Jersey at this time.

City and County Poets Laureate

Jersey City

In 2024, Melida Rodas was appointed poet laureate of Jersey City.

Cape May

In 2022, Sylvia Baer was named the inaugural poet laureate of Cape May.

Type	Title	State
Writing Program	Rowan University	New Jersey
Writing Program	Rutgers University-Camden	New Jersey
Literary Organization	Delaware Valley Poets	New Jersey
Writing Program	Rutgers University-Newark	New Jersey
Literary Organization	The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College	New Jersey
Writing Program	Princeton University	New Jersey
Festival	Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival	New Jersey
Poetry-Friendly Bookstore	Clinton Book Shop	New Jersey
Reading Series	The College of New Jersey Visiting Writer’s Series	New Jersey
Poetry-Friendly Bookstore	The Cranbury Bookworm	New Jersey

I sit by the window and watch a great mythological bird go down in flames. In fact, it’s a kite the neighborhood troublemaker has set on fire. Twenty-one and still living at home, deciding when to cut through a screen and chop us into little pieces. “He wouldn’t hurt a fly,” his mother would say, as they packed our parts into black antiseptic body bags. I explain this possibility to the garbage men. I’m trying to make friends with them, unable to understand why they leave our empty cans in the middle of the driveway, then laugh as they walk away.

Peter Johnson

2006

It's the fern beyond the wind, the classic
Eruptions.  Night is a funnel that is overcome.
Violence of signs beyond the pale. Stasis
Has its own way, the hard work, the violence. 
Convalesce, convalesce in the green green
World, in which you could hardly walk,
But that was before, before life set its rhythms
In its way. Passion is confused by silence.
Gone are the slow horses, the wetness and the 
Going forth, that's made me whole again.
A small room, a sandwich in the moonlight,
Intermittently, I see a hummingbird at
The flower box, and the great church bells
Ring.

Noelle Kocot

2012

^{Upon their arrival in America, more than twelve million immigrants were processed through the Ellis Island Immigration Center. Those who had traveled in second or third class were immediately given a thirty-second health inspection to determine if they were fit to enter their new country. A chalk checkmark on their clothing signaled a health problem and meant a stay in the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, where they either recovered or, if deemed incurable, were kept until they could be sent back home.}

Patricia Smith

2016

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New Jersey

Recent & Featured Listings

Gerald Stern

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Tracy K. Smith

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