On Thursday, April 3rd, the Poet Laureate of New Hampshire, Jennifer Militello, came to visit Saint Anselm College. An event was held at 7pm in the Grappone Humanities Institute where she performed eight of her poems (plus one for an encore) for the students and faculty in attendance. The event began with an introduction by Professor Bouchard and was the last in the Humanities Institute “Big Thought Series” called “The Presence of the Past.” Jennifer Militello then introduced herself and read her poems, giving some background on each one. The first three poems she read followed a theme of her personal past, while the last five had a shared theme of collective pasts and experiences. At the end of the reading, she did a brief Q&A and was persuaded to read one more poem. 

For those who don’t know what a Poet Laureate is, it is a poet that is appointed by the government and can be national or for a particular state. Jennifer described her job as the New Hampshire Poet Laureate, saying “The job is just increasing the visibility of poetry in the state.” She is paid, but does not receive much: “There’s the tiniest amount of money that probably doesn’t even cover my gas. But that’s ok, I still really love it and feel really honored. Some really famous poets like Donald Hall, Jane Kenyon, Maxine Kumin have been Poet Laureate of NH in the past, so it’s really an honor to be in the position.” Jennifer is not Poet Laureate for any other reason than her love of poetry and desire to share that with as many people as possible. 

When asked about the process of becoming a Poet Laureate and who is involved, Jennifer explained that “there’s a committee made up of different arts organizations, independent bookstores, and the poetry society of NH has a hand in it. So all these people get together, and they decide who they want to bring to the governor for their choice (…) and then the governor brings it before the executive council, and he makes the nomination official, and it is then passed by the executive council in a session, and then I guess that makes it official.” On the subject of her audience, she agreed that New Hampshire is definitely a part of it, but she also has a national reputation. She says that “a lot of times, poets are writing for other poets and for lovers of poetry because it’s such a niche community. But one of the things I want as Laureate is to broaden not just my own audience but the audience for poems.” 

Rather than narrative poems, Jennifer writes mostly lyric poems that are “more musical, image based. They can be about emotions; they sort of don’t feel that they need to cohere to subject matter as much.” Themes in her poetry include “nature imagery” but not in a traditional way, “existential dread and fear of death,” and smaller themes like “love, romantic love, problematic relationships with family, illness and the body, and the sort of weirdness of being in a physical body.” As a Poet Laureate, she wants her poems to reach everyone in some way. She says “I don’t want anyone to have to feel that they have to articulate what my poems mean. I want them to experience them and get that kind of emotional reaction to it that doesn’t require analysis. I want to write poems that make people feel things.” One student in attendance, Julia Mehlin, expressed her agreement with this sentiment when she said “Jennifer shows us that creativity is never-ending when you allow yourself to think outside of the box and to take risks. This event had an incredible turnout, and it’s really a testament to how art brings people together and allows us to embrace our humanity and celebrate one another.” Faculty and students that attended the event all enjoyed it a lot, and Jennifer did a wonderful job of bringing joy and laughter to Saint Anselm. 

In her closing thoughts, Jennifer gave some advice to Saint Anselm College students, saying “You are really fortunate here at Saint Anselm because you have professors and a culture that is so dedicated to serious writing and serious thinking, and that’s a total gift so don’t take it for granted. Dig in, learn all you can, look at what these wise people are telling you, absorb it, and be grateful that you have such a beautiful culture and a beautiful place here!” Her work is beautiful and inspirational, and New Hampshire is lucky to have such a wonderful Poet Laureate.