Introducing Sonoma County's new Poet Laureate Elizabeth Herron

[Larry Robinson]

Elizabeth Herron has been named Sonoma County Poet Laureate (2022 - 2024).   During her tenure, she will be gathering poems from the community on the theme of “Being Brave.” 

Elizabeth's writing centers on art and ecology, the role of art in society, and the importance of natural systems and biodiversity in the well-being of individuals, communities, and the planet. www.elizabeth-herron.com. 

Elizabeth's recent book, Insistent Grace  - http://www.fernwoodpress.com/2020/12/11/insistent-grace/ - will be followed by her forthcoming collection of poems, also from Fernwood, centered on the ramifications of climate chaos.  

Professor Emerita of Sonoma State University, Elizabeth taught Expressive Arts, Ecological Identity,  Dreams & Creativity, and Creativity & Contemplative Practice. She is the author of three full-length collections, four poetry chapbooks and a collection of short fiction as well as numerous articles.

Sebastopol Center for the Arts, along with the Poet Laureate Selection Committee, invites the public to a reception on Saturday, July, 30, 2022 at 4PM honoring outgoing Poet Laureate, Phyllis Meshulam, and welcoming Elizabeth.

Here is one of Elizabeth’s poems:


BORROWING
	So each man must yield the lease-hold of his days.
					   Beowulf
			             
What after all do we own in this life?
A moon through shuddering oaks, 
its light borrowed from the sun. 
Would it be better if from the beginning 
we knew the truth? that everything is borrowed, 
that only our souls belong to us,
and they too only for the lease-hold of our days,
and little we know that number
or what comes after. Astonishing
in sunlight the lilies 
have split their long buds to open 
each separate petal, butter yellow 
ignited like the moon as if
from within. Remember 
spring’s first grass?
that same impossible incandescence
without apparent purpose. Light
escaping everywhere – in the bodhisattva 
who passes no judgment, 
the old horse alone in the field, 
or the man in Tiananmen Square, side-stepping 
to stay in the path of the tank. Light – 
the flood of it! Brief and unforgettable.
The broken moon, the lilies of the field.
 	
	 
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