Poet Laureate 9: January 2025–May 2025

My last poet laureate post was for an event dated in early January 2025, but I realize that I had missed an interview that took place in December 2024: an interview by Tony Robles for Listen and Be Heard Radio. This interview can be seen here: On 29 January 29 2025, I was interviewed by John Busbee for the Culture Buzz Show broadcast on KFMG radio in Des Moines. That interview may be found as a podcast here: https://archive.org/details/vince-gotera-poet.-dragons-rayguns.-ia-poet-laureate.-jan-2025-online-audio-converter.com On 5 February 2025, I had the pleasure of meeting with a high school freshman class at Bedford Elementary School in Bedford, Iowa, via Zoom. That was a fun event. On 6 March 2025, I was honored to give a poetry reading at Iowa State University, sponsored by University Museums. On the next evening, 7 March 2025, Poetry Palooza (an Iowa poetry nonprofit organization) sponsored me to give a reading at the RAYGUN store in Des Moines. On 9 March 2025, I was privileged to serve as a judge for Iowa's Poetry Out Loud finals in Des Moines. I opened the event with a brief poetry reading. It was a treat to watch the participants — high school students from around the state — performing famous poems. On 18 March 2025, I was honored to give a poetry reading at the Iowa Veterans Home, where I read poems about my military service and my family tradition of soldiering, especially from my collection Fighting Kite (which is available to be read here in the blog — see the link at top left). Here's a newspaper article about this reading, from the Marshalltown Times-Republican: https://www.timesrepublican.com/news/todays-news/2025/03/iowa-poet-laureate-vince-gotera-reads-to-ivh-residents-and-staff/ On the weekend of 4-5 April 2025, I was a featured poet at the Poetry Palooza celebration in Des Moines, where I gave a poetry reading with the other featured poets, gave a workshop titled, "Exploring Hay(na)ku Poems," and participated in a featured-poet panel. As part of this event as well, I visited two classrooms — 7th graders at Humboldt Middle School in Humboldt, Iowa, and 4th graders at Clarion-Goldfield-Dows School in Clarion, Iowa. The photos above show the two visits to the 7th-grade and 4th-grade classrooms. If you look on the board behind me in the picture with the 4th graders, you'll see round faces I drew on the board, a boy and a girl, then had the students draw features on them, eyes, ears, accouterments, etc., and then we all wrote poems about those faces. It was a lot of fun. On 6 April 2025, I did a "Poetry Walk" at Iowa State University. This event, sponsored by University Museums, had me visit, with an audience, several works of art around the campus, about which I had written ekphrastic poems. At each location, I read the poem out loud and then discussed the poems and the art with the audience. On 13 April 2025, I gave a reading at Beaverdale Books in Des Moines. Here's a TV news report from Local 5 (WOI-TV) about the event: On 28 April 2025, I had the privilege of giving a poetry reading at Prairie Lights Books in Iowa City. That reading was a blast . . . great crowd. On 17 May 2025, I gave a poetry reading at the Coralville Asian Fest. That was a fun event. My reading was sandwiched between Korean dancers and a kids' choir. On 19 May 2025, my interview with Becky Parker of Briar House Writes appeared on YouTube. That was a great conversation. Check it out: That's all the Poet Laureate news to date! Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Thanks! Ingat, everyone.  ヅ