Hi everyone,
I’m happy to announce that my guest this week on Poetry from Daily Life is Missouri’s very first poet laureate, WALTER BARGEN, who lives in Ashland, Missouri. I’m the state’s PL #7 and between the two of us came five other Missouri poets: DAVID CLEWELL, WILLIAM TROWBRIDGE, ALIKI BARNSTONE, KAREN CRAIGO, and MARYFRANCES WAGNER.
Walter was appointed as Missouri Poet Laureate in 2008 by then governor MATT BLUNT. A lot of people had worked for years to convince a governor to create the position and make an appointment. Blunt was the one who finally did it. One of the things I admire about Walter is that for forty years, he has written a poem each month, based on a photograph, for Today’s Farmer Magazine. During his term, he organized through Missouri high school libraries, a monthly live interview with a Missouri poet. It was broadcast late mornings and open to questions from students.
Walter’s column will be featured in print Saturday in Springfield News-Leader and in its e-edition Sunday. I’ll post a link to the online column sometime Sunday morning. Thank you, Walter Bargen!
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