Being Quote by Amanda Gorman

It is a tremendous honor to be named poet laureate, but one that I find humbling as well, because it's the kind of thing…

— Natasha Trethewey

To be poet laureate is to try to spread the love and the accessibility of poetry to young people.

— Jacqueline Woodson

It's the combination of the intimate and the public that I find so exciting about being poet laureate.

— Rita Dove

Those who say we should dismantle the role of Poet Laureate altogether, the trick they miss is that being called this thing, with the…

— Andrew Motion

People write me from all over the country, asking me, and sometimes even telling me, what they think a poet laureate should do. I…

— Rita Dove

Pretty much the day I stopped being laureate, the poems that had been few and far between came back to me, like birds in…

— Andrew Motion

Matt Mason must be declared the poet laureate of the Midwest! No other native son celebrates the overlooked America, its unsung citizens (from the…

— Rigoberto Gonzalez

Being Poet Laureate made me realize I was capable of a larger voice. There is a more public utterance I can make as a…

— Rita Dove

“They wrote to me and said something about it, and I said that if it doesn't involve any work, I'll do it. (On being…

— Robert Bly

The laureateship [of U.S. Children's Poet] has brought me a couple of appealing contracts, including my first anthology, the 200-poem The National Geographic Book…

— J. Patrick Lewis

It is funny, and also a bit sad, that poets are so often asked to justify our vocation. There seems to be something vaguely…

— Matthew Zapruder

“Now, you might think that because there are more poets than ever, there might be more opportunities for poets than ever. And you’d be…

— Jim Behrle