Jim Wilson/The New York Times
James Tyner, recently named the first poet laureate of Fresno, Calif., in a lot where an episode inspired his poem “After Jumping Some Kids and Taking Their Money, 1988.” Fresno’s mayor said the city had realized that there was “a missing piece” in its ability to express itself.
By NORIMITSU ONISHI
Published: May 7, 2013
FRESNO, Calif. — This city has long been an object of ridicule. Even seemingly innocuous details like the flatness of the land, reinforced by the sea of ranch-style houses, take on a pejorative hue. Midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, the western gateway on Highway 99 to Yosemite National Park, Fresno is not a destination but “a bathroom stop,” in the words of its poet laureate.
Yes, Fresno inaugurated its first poet laureate on April 22, formally embracing a rich poetic history that, though widely acclaimed in literary circles, had received little recognition here.
Fresno joins a rapidly growing list of cities and towns across the nation with their own official bards; in just the past few months, not only have Houston and Los Angeles established poet laureateships but so have Boise, Idaho; Key West, Fla.; McAllen, Tex.; and San Mateo County, near San Francisco.
For many poets, and those in the poetry business, the popularity of poets laureate — those who labor over words to sing a community’s virtues or plumb its psyche in an age defined by Twitter messages — is a pleasant surprise. Why now, though, remains something of a mystery.
“I have no idea, I have no idea,” said Philip Levine, the former United States poet laureate, who has lived in Fresno since the late 1950s. But his enthusiasm was tempered by worries over the proliferation of poets laureate. “If you gave the Congressional Medal of Honor to everybody who got drafted, in a way you water down the award,” he said. “Do all these towns need a poet laureate? That’s what I wonder. Does Fresno, for that matter?”
Ashley Swearengin, the city’s mayor, said Fresno realized that there was “a missing piece” in its ability to express itself. So the city decided on a poet laureate “to express what it’s like to be in Fresno, what life is like on the ground here, and to really capture the essence of our community, to bind us as a community and help to represent to the outside world what our community is like.”
Fresno, which is providing a $2,000 stipend for a two-year term, chose James Tyner, 37, an award-winning poet, a full-time librarian and the author of a chapbook of poetry, “The Ghetto Exorcist.” At his inauguration, Mr. Tyner read from a poem he had composed for the occasion, “Fresno, California. 2013,” which began:
I am Fresno.
I am the high school kid that can’t wait to get out of this town,
there’s nothing to do here, nothing ever happens, waiting
for that last summer, before heading out of town.
The rapid rise in poets laureate, especially in small cities and towns, makes it difficult to know their exact numbers. But according to the Academy of American Poets, at least 35 larger cities have poets laureate.
“In the past five years, we’ve seen many, many more local communities create and fill the poet laureate position,” said Jennifer Benka, the academy’s executive director. “It really is a nationwide phenomenon.”
In part, the increase could be the trickle-down effect of the doubling of statewide poets laureate in the past decade. Now, all but six states have poet laureateships, according to the Library of Congress.
Interest in poetry has gone up, experts say, thanks to efforts by local libraries and arts councils, as well as wider programs like National Poetry Month, Poetry in Motion and Poem in Your Pocket Day.
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