Nebraska

In 1921, Nebraska established a state poet laureate position, which is currently held by Jewel Rodgers, who was appointed in 2025 for a five-year term.

Type	Title	State
Literary Organization	Fine Lines	Nebraska
Literary Organization	Center for Great Plains Studies	Nebraska
Literary Organization	Nebraska Arts Council	Nebraska
Literary Organization	Nebraska Writers Collective	Nebraska
Literary Organization	Nebraska Humanities Council	Nebraska
Literary Organization	Nebraska Center for the Book	Nebraska
Conference	Omaha Lit Fest	Nebraska
Literary Organization	Nebraska Literary Heritage Association	Nebraska
Festival	Plum Creek Children's Literacy Festival	Nebraska
Small Press	The Backwaters Press	Nebraska

Click the icon above to listen to this audio poem.

Harryette Mullen

2009

—Daniel Freeman, first to file claim, Jan. 1, 1863

Here, an abundance of trees, stream, prairie—
enough to sustain a family, prove up this plot of land,
the first of thousands to be claimed across America.

Place that was first inhabited by natives, lodge-
and tipi-dwellers, who also relied on the wood, water,
flourishing wild game—hooved, pawed, and winged.

Prairie, where wild grasses are capable of growing
taller than humans, sustained through heat, drought,
cold, hail, snow, wind, by roots of unimaginable depth.

Twyla M. Hansen

2016

Alas, that June should come when thou didst go;

I think you passed each other on the way;

And seeing thee, the Summer loved thee so

That all her loveliness she gave away;

Her rare perfumes, in hawthorn boughs distilled,

Blushing, she in thy sweeter bosom left,

Thine arms with all her virgin roses filled,

Yet felt herself the richer for thy theft;

Beggared herself of morning for thine eyes,

Hung on the lips of every bird the tune,

Breathed on thy cheek her soft vermilion dyes,

And

Willa Cather

1903

Poetry Near You

Nebraska

Recent & Featured Listings

Willa Cather

Ted Kooser

Twyla M. Hansen

Poetry Near You

Page submenu block

Nebraska

Recent & Featured Listings

Willa Cather

Ted Kooser

Twyla M. Hansen

Related Poems

Newsletter Sign Up