Santa Clara County Poet Laureate

Wow, was this morning's e-mail exciting! I was informed the one line I submitted to the Santa Clara County's Poet Laureate's call for a mass poem is included! ( I did write this on Monday, but wanted to make sure that it was okay to include the below in my blog first. Now it is public knowledge.) There were about 500 entries according to the media, and 100 were chosen.

The reading is to be Wednesday June 24 at as the invocation for the Board of Supervisors in the lobby at 70 West Hedding Street at 9:30 a.m.  There is also a news conference at 11:30 a.m. where the poem is to be unveiled on Tuesday June 23.

Nils Peterson, who is the first Santa Clara County Poet Laureate, is reciting the 100 line poem which is composed of lines from Santa Clara County residents.

The requirements were to write a line every morning with 9 to 13 syllables and then submit a favorite at the end of the month. About those offered, Nils Peterson is quoted as saying (from an e-mail from the County Office of Public Affairs): "...there were many good lines that had to be left out.  Some were very close in subject matter and I had to choose one over another.  Others just didn't seem to find a comfortable place as the album grew.  We all have boxes of pictures that never got put in the book that are as good as the ones that did. Some lines had a syllable or more too many.  I hasten to add, there will be more chances to speak about this place and our time in it."  

Nils Peterson, according to his biography web page at www.pcsj.org/biographies/nilspeterson.html was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2005.

He is well known in the Silicon Valley as being a premiere poet and taught for over 30 years at San Jose State.  He also serves as a poetry consultant and editor, and is a key figure at Poetry Center San Jose.

See

www.sccgov.org/poetlaureate 

An aside: Re last post: Regarding press releases, it may be indeed that in order to be legal, an initial one has to be published in a local paper per my friend, editor Sara Aurich.