Mississippi

State Poet Laureate

In 1963, Mississippi established a state poet laureate position, which is currently held by Ann Fisher-Wirth, who was appointed to a four-year term in 2025.

Type	Title	State
Literary Organization	The Mississippi Writers Page	Mississippi
Writing Program	Mississippi State University	Mississippi
Writing Program	University of Mississippi	Mississippi
Writing Program	University of Southern Mississippi Center for Writers	Mississippi
Literary Magazine	Black Magnolias	Mississippi
Literary Magazine	The Jabberwock Review	Mississippi
Literary Magazine	Mississippi Review	Mississippi
Literary Magazine	Yalobusha Review	Mississippi
Poetry-Friendly Bookstore	Cover to Cover Books	Mississippi
Poetry-Friendly Bookstore	Lemuria Bookstore	Mississippi

1

    No, I don't know

the way to get there.
    Two empty suitcases sit in the corner,
if that's any kind of clue.

2

    This spring night,

everyone at the party
    younger than me
except for one man.
    We give each other the secret password.

3

    Tears? Of course, but also the marsh grass

near the Mississippi:
    your whispers and mine,
and the dog's long contented sighs.

Jim Moore

2011

My parents come from a place where all the houses stop
at one story

for the heat. Where every porch—front
and back—simmers in black screens that sieve

mosquitoes from our blood. Where everyone knows
there’s only one kind of tea:

served sweet. The first time my father
introduced my mother to his parents,

his mother made my mother change
the bed sheets in the guest room. She’d believed it

a gesture of intimacy. My grandmother
saved lavender hotel soaps and lotions

to wrap and mail as gifts at Christmas. My grandfather

Anna Journey

2013

Just this—

When they were my sons
I would pull the covers up
around their ears
and tuck them in,
smooth their hair,
kiss their salty eyelids.
Now gingko leaves
make golden blankets
around the tombstone
of a boy from Iowa
and another I can’t read,
and another another
another another another
as far as I can see
scattered across the hillside
this autumn and every
autumn beyond counting.

Ann Fisher-Wirth

2016

Poetry Near You

Mississippi

Recent & Featured Listings

Ann Fisher-Wirth

Liz Waldner

Etheridge Knight

Poetry Near You

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Mississippi

Recent & Featured Listings

Ann Fisher-Wirth

Liz Waldner

Etheridge Knight

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