West Virginia

State Poet Laureate

In 1927, West Virginia established a state poet laureate position, which is currently held by Marc Harshman, who was appointed in 2012. Harshman is the author of eleven picture books for children and three poetry chapbooks, including Local Journeys (Finishing Line Press, 2004).

City and County Poets Laureate

Harpers Ferry

George Owens was appointed Harpers Ferry, West Virginia poet laureate in 2019, which is a five-year term. He is the author of Scenes above the Wipers: and other sequences from Harpers Ferry (2014).

Type	Title	State
Writing Program	Creative Writing Program at West Virginia University	West Virginia
Literary Magazine	Calliope	West Virginia
Literary Magazine	Kestrel	West Virginia
Small Press	West Virginia University Press	West Virginia
Literary Organization	West Virginia Commission on the Arts	West Virginia
Literary Organization	West Virginia Humanities Council	West Virginia
Literary Organization	West Virginia Poetry Society	West Virginia
Literary Organization	West Virginia Writers, Inc.	West Virginia
Poetry-Friendly Bookstore	Fort Ashby Books	West Virginia
Poetry-Friendly Bookstore	Four Seasons Books	West Virginia

Something New Under the Sun

It would have to shine. And burn. And be 
a sign of something infinite and turn things 
and people nearby into their wilder selves 
and be dangerous to the ordinary nature of 
signs and glow like a tiny hole in space

to which a god presses his eye and stares. 
Or her eye. Some divine impossible stretch 
of the imagination where you and I are one. 
It would have to be something Martin Buber 
would say and, seeing it, point and rejoice.

It could be the mouth of a Coca-Cola bottle 
or two snakes rolling down a mountain trail.

Steve Scafidi

2001

Elegy for the Shenandoah River

at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

The rivers meet become one and disappear
At the sea and the young find the solace
Of drugs and fucking. Falling-in-love

Is the story they tell later living a while
Maybe in misery or in joyful fits
Of circumstance dying off eventually

Leaving behind the meanings they made
Which dissolve in the rain over eons:
Houses and books and machines starting

To drizzle back into atoms loose like
Fires in the green bombast of the hillsides
And the town of Harpers Ferry and its

Steve Scafidi

2016

West Virginia

Fall kingdom conquered first by bedlam,

then bedlam’s hunger—hush—heavy

in the air between the hills that crash

like waves into each other. What is a hive

without its queen?

William Brewer

2017

Poetry Near You

West Virginia

Recent & Featured Listings

Maggie Anderson

Mary Ann Samyn

Carrie Williams Clifford

Something New Under the Sun

Elegy for the Shenandoah River

West Virginia

Poetry Near You

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West Virginia

Recent & Featured Listings

Maggie Anderson

Mary Ann Samyn

Carrie Williams Clifford

Related Poems

Something New Under the Sun

Elegy for the Shenandoah River

West Virginia

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