"Being Brave" theme for new SoCo Poet Laureate
Graton's Elizabeth Herron will focus on connecting people around courage
At the Sebastopol Center for the Arts on Saturday, Elizabeth C. Herron officially received her laurel wreath and began her two-year term as the Sonoma County’s new Poet Laureate. About 125 people attended the inauguration ceremony, which was hosted by Catherine Devriese, Creative Director for the Center. Devriese welcomed five previous poet laureates on stage.
She said: “Every Poet Laureate is a Sonoma County resident whose poetry manifests a high degree of excellence, who has produced a critically acclaimed body of work, and who has demonstrated a commitment to the literary arts in Sonoma County.” The Sonoma County Poet Laureate program was started in 1991 by Timothy Williams, a Healdsburg poet. Now, a local committee selects the poet laureate from a group of nominees.
Devriese introduced Sebastopol’s Phyllis Meshulam, the outgoing poet laureate. She rose from her wheelchair with assistance from her daughter to read several poems in a clear, steady voice. With her two-year term taking place during Covid, Meshulam had to find alternate ways such as using Zoom to bring people together for poetry.
In introducing the new poet laureate, Devries said that Elizabeth C. Herron “writes poetry and articles on art and ecology, the role of art in society, and the importance of natural systems and biodiversity in the physical and spiritual well being of individuals, communities, and the planet.” Herron is the first Poet Laureate from Graton. She read several of her poems, beginning with one she called a chant about a deer. It had the following refrain:
Little deer, little doe
Come back to your bones
And bless them.
She announced “Being Brave” as the theme of her tenure. She hopes to encourage people to discover their “hidden courage” and use poems about to talk what it means to be brave.
When we are courageous, it has something to do with the heart. And poetry most often arises from the heart. These days we need courage in almost every part of our lives. We have to be brave in facing the uncertain future of the climate. We have to be brave about the possibility of fire. We have to be brave to protect others who are more vulnerable. It takes courage to apologize, and it takes courage to try again when we fail. We see leaders who are courageous, and we witness courage around us every day in tiny moments we hardly notice. If we/you look for them, what will we see? [Sonoma County Literary Update]
Herron said that she “had been pushed to the top of the pyramid”, an image that she described as a group of 1930’s era men in bathing suits forming a human pyramid on the beach. She realized that as poet laureate “what holds you up is all the other poets” in the community.
To close, Herron brought up musician Brendon Smith and together they sang a beautiful song of his called “A Trillion Shades of Gray.”
The ceremony was followed by a reception. The cake decorator wrote “Poet Gloriat” on the cake, which could be seen as a fortunate mistake. I asked Catherine DeVriese if she noticed it. She replied: “Haha yes, I really thought that (former poet laureate) Bill Vartnaw did that on purpose.”
