Ridgefield Poet Laureate On Amanda Gorman And The New Rock Stars

RIDGEFIELD, CT — When the nation's first-ever youth poet laureate read her work,"The Hill We Climb," at the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, poetry had a moment. Amanda Gorman was only the sixth poet in U.S. history to read their verse at a presidential inauguration, and at age 22, the youngest by far. By the end of the day, her two books of poems had rocketed to the top of Amazon's Bestsellers List

But it's when Gorman returned to the national stage to perform her "Chorus of the Captains" before a Super Bowl audience of 96.4 million that her moment may have signaled the start of a new movement.

"She has opened the world to poetry," Barb Jennes, Ridgefield's poet laureate said. "She has shown the world how accessible poetry can be, and that is what was lacking before. People think of poetry as something they had to memorize in school, but she has made it clear how emotionally moving poetry can be."

Poetry has always been, is supposed to be, a verbal art form, according to Jennes: "It's how history was told, how mythology was told, it wasn't a written art form until recently."

In a business famous for not making anyone rich, those sonnet-slingers known for their performances paid a hefty price, but that's all changing, Jenne said.

"These poets were frowned upon as lesser, second-tier poets, and now they're winning Pulitzer Prizes and National Book Awards. It's become recognized as 'the true poetry.'"

There may be new momentum nationally, but Jennes warned of a few surprising speed bumps on the local level.

"The schools are already constrained by their curriculums, and have little time to add," according to the poet. She said schools may expose students to poetry, but don't give them nearly enough of a chance to put quill to brain.

"I know most schools have some sort of poetry in their English classes, but I think that every student everywhere and at every level should have the opportunity to write poetry. Not just read it, and discuss it and defend your opinions about it — which is the academic approach — but to write it and feel the wonderful healing and uplift that expressing emotions can give you."

Of course, with more and more schools promoting their expanded science/technology/engineering/math curriculum (STEM), re-imagined poetry courses don't make it to most superintendents' short lists.

But Jennes, a retired Scotts Ridge Middle School English teacher, has little patience for that line of reasoning.

"Every time I see that, I remind whatever organization is touting their STEM program that there is also something called STEAM, which adds 'arts' in there. Unless you have the balance of the two, you don't have the whole person," Jennes said.

Ridgefield's poet laureate said she is working to add additional poetry programming to the public schools' offerings, but worries they are "choked with what they already have to deliver academically."

Gorman said she wanted to "reestablish the power of words" with her gig at the inauguration. Jennes told Patch she has formulated the same action plan for Ridgefield, and has already established several programs at the Ridgefield Library and at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in town.

She says part of her mission is to "go to churches and organizations and do these very brief poetry-generating sessions with everyday people, and let them see it's not something that is beyond them."

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The coronavirus pandemic has been great for poetry, if not necessarily for poets. Jennes said that there has been a spike in the number of poetry journals and magazines being birthed online since last spring, but all that free verse may have dulled the appetite for the paid variety.

"The thing that's happened with the pandemic is that there are so many poetry readings with internationally recognized poets happening online free, whereas you used to have to pay $25 and travel distances to see these people read," she said.

Jennes hopes all the town's poetry programs enjoy a spike in participation following Gorman's recent star turns. She is confident that after the nation's youth poet laureate has convinced a resident to sign up, the muse will do the rest.

"Once you've had the experience of writing it, performing it, and hearing your peers... it really awakens you to what an everyman art form it is."