LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Westwood's First Poet Laureate Reflects on 2 Years of Poetry

To the Editor:

In 2021, Library Director Lizzy McGovern convened a Poet Laureate Search Committee, after receiving input from Town Administrator Christopher Coleman and Select Board members Marianne LeBlanc Cummings, Mike Walsh and Rob Gotti. The Search Committee reviewed applications for the two-year appointment—resumés, applicant’s plans for bringing poetry into the community and writing samples of the applicants’ poems. In February 2023, the Select Board formally approved my appointment to a two-year term to begin May 1, 2023.

The 18 months since then have been jam-packed with over 50 poetry events, from my original poems for holidays and town events like Westwood Day, to producing programs in the Westwood public schools grades K-12, to bringing in other poets, including internationally acclaimed Richard Blanco, for interactive readings. I have offered poetry workshops for adults at the main and Islington branch libraries, and at the Council on Aging, organized and emceed the annual town-wide Poetry reading & Open Mic, represented Westwood at Hale Poetry Night, the Brockton Library’s gathering of poet laureates from eastern and central Massachusetts and the Cambridge River Arts Festival, selected and mentored two Youth Poet Laureates, and published two anthologies of the Tuesday Evening Poets.

None of this would have been possible without the unflagging support of the Westwood Library director and staff, Select Board, Friends of the Library, Westwood Public Library 21st Century Fund, Westwood Town Cultural Council, Mass. Cultural Council, Westwood Schools’ teachers and school librarians, Youth Poet Laureates Lucie Sechler (emerita) and Elizabeth Lowney (current), the Tuesday Evening Poets and the many poets who traveled to Westwood to present at school and community programs.

In five months, my term will end, and it will be time for another poet to take up the mantle. If you know a poet who lives or works in Westwood, encourage that person to apply. The position is what the next poet laureate wants to make of it, not necessarily a duplication of my efforts as inaugural poet laureate. Applications are now open and continue through January 8, 2025.

https://www.westwoodlibrary.org/news/call-for-applications-for-next-poet-laureate-of-westwood

For questions, send message on the town website comment form, https://www.townhall.westwood.ma.us/departments/library/poet-laureate

With gratitude to all the poets and the poetry fans in Westwood,

Lynne Viti