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 “
2023 Celebrity Judge – Gilad Jaffe
Gilad Jaffe is an Iowa Arts Fellow at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Originally from New York City, he holds a BA in Written Arts from Bard College where he was awarded the Academy of American Poets Prize. His recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Bennington Review, Colorado Review, Conjunctions, Denver Quarterly, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, The Iowa Review, and TriQuarterly, among others. Gilad has received generous support from the Abrons Arts Center in New York, PEN America, and the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. He is currently at work on his debut collection.
ADHESION
I turn the oldest lights in the room
on first & then the second oldest.
These are the youngest. The landlord
downstairs, slapping paint on the stoop
like a Greek fisherman tenderizes
an octopus against a rock. They smack it
up to 100 times & rub it around
in a circle. This is to drain the body
of its seawater & make it softer.
Moses disobeyed God by striking a stone
twice for its water. He could not trust
that God would provide for his community.
Studies have shown that the Namibian
fogstand beetle sits in the early morning
mist, collecting water on its back, angled
at 45° so the water droplets roll along
its tightened wings & into its mouth.
By no means can we take this mercy lightly.
– The Chattahoochee Review
POEM TO KEEP YOU COMPANY
All ears: The boat is in the trees. Inlets,
royal poincianas, the rain! One & one & one
all the same. An owl with a wingful of eggs
is making eyes with you through the window.
Some people call that window a transom.
I’d like to have them all over for breakfast.
Cackleberries & other future-birds make for
something of an ornithological gobbledygook
& New York apartments leave little room
for secrets. The way ice water tastes after
ice cream, the hidden bosom of Abraham.
How Spanish moss pours down onto the planet,
prettier than kudzu, & spills with a radiance
that fills even the hollow places. Maybe
you were never really here in the first place,
staring at zeroes, listening to pictures.
Maybe the way things change is really the way
things tell you their names. The sky today
has been Yes. I got there by looking through
the ceiling-fan, which spliced what I saw
until all I could see was myself seeing
& that seeing was a covenant.
– Poets.org
PIYYUT
October morning, ’65,
long before the Twins
arrive, Sandy Koufax cracks
his knuckles into monuments.
Cave of the Double Caves:
Threshold to the Garden
of Eden: The body of the mind.
Between the colonnades
of a building, Vitruvius tells us
there should be only greenery
& open air for the health
of our eyes. Koufax walks
into the outfield & cries:
Who by water? Who by fire?
Who by groundout? Who by flyer?
Who caught looking? Who
down swinging? Who by sacrifice?
Who by singing?
– The Iowa Review
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Poets Laureate
