With words that sung and meter that flowed, Joseph Hutchison became Colorado’s eighth poet laureate.
Gov. John Hickenlooper announced Hutchison’s appointment Tuesday on the steps of the Capitol, touting the Colorado native as a man who appreciates his surroundings and can encompass the essence of the state.
“Poetry speaks to every aspect of our lives,” Hutchison said. “People turn to poetry when they fall in love or when they fall out of love. When someone dies, people turn to poetry.”
Hutchison, who accepted this position with wide grins and a bounce in his step, said he hopes to use his new position to spread poetry throughout schools in Colorado by encouraging the state’s educators to see the merit in verse. As his first order of business, Hutchison recited one of his brief poems, loudly proclaiming, “O heart weighed down by so many wings!”
Hutchison, who read three short poems at the ceremony, is a professor and administrator overseeing writing programs at the University of Denver.
The University of Northern Colorado graduate attributes his love of verse to Colorado’s public educators who thrust him into the literary world from a home that was “not so book-friendly.”
“There’s no reason that poetry cannot be integrated into every aspect of teaching and enrich the lives of children,” he said.
Hutchison replaces David Mason, a Colorado College professor, as the state’s top poet. The position, which now has a four-year term limit, was established in Colorado in 1919, making the state only the second to have such a role. Now, 40 states have poet laureates.
Hickenlooper said he chose Hutchison, who has published several collections, after weighing work from many of the state’s poets.
“I think, really, when you look at what the poet laureate speaks to, (it speaks to) how we have a really strong literary culture going on in Colorado right now,” said Hickenlooper, who majored in creative writing in college.
Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jesseapaul
