Montgomery County Poets Laureate
The Annual Montgomery Poet Laureate Competition is the foundation upon which the MCPL Program was built. The competition is the ultimate expression of the program’s mission; creating an ever expanding community of poets, supporting their work and providing opportunities for poets to elevate their visibility while also benefiting the community with their service project, many of which continue long beyond their tenure.
How does the competition work?
Each year MCPL recruits a celebrity poet with a national reputation, who along with two additional local Delaware Valley poets, adjudicate the submitted manuscripts.
The newly selected Montgomery County Poet Laureate is honored with an award in the amount of $500 along with a personalized statement about their work, which is shared through MCPL and other local organizations.
The Award is presented during an Award Ceremony and Reading, open to the public and attended by the celebrity judge and previous poets laureate to read with and welcome the newest member of their esteemed ranks.
Who can compete?
Poets of all ages and backgrounds are encouraged to submit their poetry for review and adjudication in the annual competition. Poets must also be residents of Montgomery County. The window for submissions generally opens in early December and closes mid-February with the winner to be announced at the end of March.
The role of the Poet Laureate
The Poet Laureate functions as an ambassador for poetry in Montgomery County from April 1 of the year of his/her naming to March 31st of the following year. This role includes working with MCPL’s Executive Director, Joanne Leva, to develop a schedule of readings, workshops
Appearances may include the Forgotten Voices Poetry Group, Farley’s Bookshop First Thursday Poetry Reading Series, and the annual Caesura Poetry Festival. They may also hold the office of “
Tina Ramberg-Michael, 2025 Montgomery County Youth Poet Laureate
2025 Montgomery County Youth Poet Laureate
Tina Ramberg-Michael is a ninth grader at Cheltenham High School. She took first place in the poetry slam at the Delaware Valley Consortium for Equity and Excellence and has published her poetry with Young Inklings. Outside of school she plays cello in three orchestras throughout Philly, Montgomery County, and Bucks County. In her free time she adores honing her creativity through making various projects with her hands as well as learning new languages. She hopes you enjoy her work as greatly as she enjoyed writing it.
Maggie
You kissed me in the appliance aisle,
For the first time
People saw, for the last time.
I held a blush-colored dinosaur stuffed animal between us, and we christened her Magnolia for the trees her likeness must’ve known
Before someone stitched her bones together, and then into cotton,
Into memory.
I think we both just needed something to hold
If not for each other, and we knew we could not have each other.
Magnolia trees have lived for one hundred million years,
Outlived the beetles that pollinated them.
Blooming among the dinosaurs and between us,
My skyline bursts softly every May into pink splendor.
I haven’t loved you for even one year yet, and I don’t think I will get to.
When the blossoms came last spring,
You told me you were dying, and in turn I thought I must be too.
I do not remember pollen, the sweet rain
Only the ceiling fan, only the kitchen sink.
I imagined the cloud of ash covering the sun
Must’ve felt like this.
When the blossoms come this spring I will have forgotten how to be so sad And I will have forgotten how to be so happy.
I will have felt the world and returned, a blossom in its bud
Too keen at the first brush of warmth since June (years ago by May)
Bitten back by the cold shock to come.
You promised me a magnolia tree in our yard,
Pink pots in the kitchen. What I mean is,
That appliance aisle looked like a future,
What I mean is, when you touched my face
You felt like the future.
What I mean is,
I would’ve kissed you when the asteroid hit,
Would’ve kissed you before you kissed me.
I think I’ve loved you for one hundred million years
And will for one hundred million more,
I think we held each other under a magnolia tree when the sky fell and the ground rose. I miss you, the way your hands turned my love to the color of soft pink splendor
“I love this poet’s surprising and vivid images, engagements with other texts, and experiments with form. These poems feel born of real private and public necessity, attuned to ephemerality and the ancient both, full of sonic pleasure and heart. The experience of reading them lingers long after I’ve finished reading. The poem ‘Maggie,’ in particular, astonishes me with its tender intimacy and deft layering of information and time. The structure and cadence of ‘Olive Trees…’ stands out as well: such a wise, thoughtful, and moving elegy of global witness. I could go on and on, but I must stop myself. I love these poems!”
2025 MCYPL Judge Gabrielle Bates
Gabrielle Bates is the author of Judas Goat (Tin House, 2023), a New York Times Book Review...
Poets Laureate
