Rhode Island

In 1987, Rhode Island established a state poet laureate position, which is currently held by Colin Channer, who was appointed to a five-year term in 2024. Channer is the author of Console (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023), which was a finalist for the New England Book Award and listed for the PEN/Voelcker Award.

Type	Title	State
Literary Magazine	Bryant Literary Review	Rhode Island
Small Press	The Poets Press	Rhode Island
Writing Program	Brown University	Rhode Island
Writing Program	Roger Williams University	Rhode Island
Writing Program	Rhode Island College	Rhode Island
Literary Organization	The Writers' Circle Inc.	Rhode Island
Poetry-Friendly Bookstore	Ada Books	Rhode Island
Literary Organization	The Pawtucket Arts Collaborative	Rhode Island
Poetry-Friendly Bookstore	Barrington Books	Rhode Island
Literary Organization	The Providence Athenaeum	Rhode Island

Here at the seashore they use the clouds over & over
again, like the rented animals in Aïda.
In the late morning the land breeze
turns and now the extras are driving
all the white elephants the other way.
What language are the children shouting in?
He is lying on the beach listening.

The sand knocks like glass, struck by bare heels.
He tries to remember snow noise.
Would powder snow ping like that?
But you don't lie with your ear to powder snow.
Why doesn't the girl who takes care
of the children, a Yale girl without flaw,
know the difference between lay and lie

William Meredith

1975

Like the Beatles arriving from Britain,
the egret's descent on the pond
takes the reeds and visitors by storm:
it is a reconstructed marsh
environment, the next
best thing to living out your wild life.

                  *

Footbridges love the past.
And like the Roman questioner who learned
"the whole of the Torah while standing on one leg,"
flamingos are pleased to ignore us.

Stephanie Burt

2006

A hope of leaves and hollows,
a breaking nest, a crest of granite
and unquarried moss. It’s soft
wintering a shade between green
and gray. The hope of colors for
which there is no word develops and
then fades. Uncaptured and un-impressed
in a kind of precision in dissolution.

Erica Mena

2016

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Rhode Island

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Rhode Island

Recent & Featured Listings

C. D. Wright

Forrest Gander

Stephen Dobyns

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