Tennessee

State Poet Laureate

In 1999, Tennessee established a state poet laureate position, which is currently held by Margaret Britton Vaughn. Vaughn is the author of several poetry collections, including Acres That Grow Stones (Iris Press, 1996).

City and County Poets Laureate

Hendersonville

In 2021, Henry L. Jones became the inaugural poet laureate of Hendersonville, Tennessee. Jones will serve an open-ended term.

Knoxville

In 2020, Rhea Carmon was appointed the poet laureate of Knoxville, Tennessee. Carmon will serve a two-year term.

Murfreesboro

In 2023, Mike James was appointed the poet laureate of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. James will serve a one-year term.

Oak Ridge

In 2022, Erin Elizabeth Smith was named the inaugural poet laureate of Oak Ridge. Smith will serve a two-year term.

Type	Title	State
Literary Magazine	Now and Then: The Appalachian Magazine	Tennessee
Festival	Southern Festival of Books: A Celebration of the Written Word	Tennessee
Literary Magazine	Poetry Miscellany	Tennessee
Poetry-Friendly Bookstore	Franklin Book Gallery	Tennessee
Literary Magazine	The Pinch	Tennessee
Poetry-Friendly Bookstore	Bookman Bookwoman	Tennessee
Literary Magazine	The Sewanee Review	Tennessee
Poetry-Friendly Bookstore	The Booksellers at Laurelwood	Tennessee
Literary Magazine	Zone 3	Tennessee
Poetry-Friendly Bookstore	Burke’s Book Store	Tennessee

Anecdote of the Jar

I placed a jar in Tennessee,
And round it was, upon a hill.
It made the slovenly wilderness
Surround that hill.

The wilderness rose up to it,
And sprawled around, no longer wild.
The jar was round upon the ground
And tall and of a port in air.

It took dominion everywhere.
The jar was gray and bare.
It did not give of bird or bush,
Like nothing else in Tennessee.

Wallace Stevens

1954

In Tennessee I Found a Firefly

Flashing in the grass; the mouth of a spider clung
     to the dark of it: the legs of the spider
held the tucked wings close,
     held the abdomen still in the midst of calling
with thrusts of phosphorescent light—

When I am tired of being human, I try to remember
     the two stuck together like burrs. I try to place them
central in my mind where everything else must
     surround them, must see the burr and the barb of them.
There is courtship, and there is hunger. I suppose
     there are grips from which even angels cannot fly.
Even imagined ones.

Mary Szybist

2003

The Sweetwater Caverns

Curious to see caverns,
we detoured in Tennessee
to ramble through Fat Man’s Misery,
past a ballroom and gun powder machine
till we reached The World’s Second Largest Underground Lake—
on which my husband had promised a ride
in a glass-bottom boat.

There, a kid hunched over a hot-rod magazine.
Dan, I think his name was,
radiant, in clammy, artificial light.

I asked Dan, college-break?
He nodded inside his hoodie
then helped me into the glass-bottom hold.
I peered into the milky water
and watched the seeded trout swim up for the chum
he dumped overboard on our account.

He was mi

Kimiko Hahn

2010

Poetry Near You

Tennessee

Recent & Featured Listings

Randall Jarrell

John Crowe Ransom

Allen Tate

Anecdote of the Jar

In Tennessee I Found a Firefly

The Sweetwater Caverns

Poetry Near You

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Tennessee

Recent & Featured Listings

Randall Jarrell

John Crowe Ransom

Allen Tate

Related Poems

Anecdote of the Jar

In Tennessee I Found a Firefly

The Sweetwater Caverns

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