Proud Bruins: Former SLCC Poet Laureate is Named Utah State Poet Laureate

 

“I propose that, when the sickness that is nostalgia comes to visit, I invite her in, serve her tea and cake, before I bid her go.”

This line and many other lines of poetry fill the pages of three published books by Lisa Bickmore, who was recently named Utah’s new poet laureate. A role she served at SLCC as well, where she was the college’s first poet laureate and where she taught English for 29 years before retiring in 2021.

“I’m deeply honored, excited, and a bit daunted by it [the appointment],” says Lisa. “Utah is full of so many wonderful writers whom I admire.”

One of the primary roles of the poet laureate is to promote the literary arts in Utah over a five-year stint. Lisa plans to build on the annual poetry festival started by her predecessor, Paisley Rekdal. She also plans to create a mobile micro-press where writers and writing groups across the state, including middle or high school students, can create chapbooks. This revived book-art medium would allow writers to experience their writing in print. “Once a writer has an actual publication of their writing in hand, there is something magical that happens,” says Lisa, who is also the founder of the non-profit Lightscatter Press.

While at SLCC, she persisted in writing and publishing her own poetry while carrying a full teaching load. “Being a teacher fed my writing,” recalls Lisa. “I’m grateful for having work that was humane and was about helping people find what they wanted and helping them develop skills so they could get closer to what they wanted.”

Lisa adds that her poetry comes from her life in the broadest sense. “It’s from being in the natural world, in relation with others, and increasingly I feel that I want to be able to respond to the world as it is.”

Advice to Nurturing Your Inner Poet

Lisa’s advice to those who want to write poetry is to keep a journal or notebook and regularly write down things you see. She says, “Let go of the idea that there is one thing that is poetic, and just be observant of the world.” And read poetry, a few times a week. “You will see incredible diversity of ideas, strategies, and receive hits of beautiful language.” She mentions three websites that share daily poems: Poetry Daily, Poem-a-Day, Academy of American Poets and Verse Daily.

Remedy

by Lisa Bickmore

Since you’ve not yet left me, mother, father,
I can tell you I will not appear at your graves
on the customary day for cleaning and decorating,

especially not in bee season, now that I’ve read
about the kind that hungers for tears and sweat,
small enough, almost, to mistake for dust, easily

and probably whisked up in a cloud you’d make
by dislodging weeds or sweeping the detritus
that collects in monuments’ stone letters.

Read the rest of the poem on Quarterly West.

To read more of Lisa’s poems visit her website.

To request a Utah poet laureate appearance, visit the Utah Division of Arts & Museums.