By Emily Carter
April is National Poetry Month — a time to celebrate poets and their craft of written and spoken word that has shaped our culture. To celebrate, the newly appointed Prince William County Poet Laureate is holding an online event where local poets will be performing a reading of their poetry. The event will be live on Facebook on April 18 at 4 p.m.
The reading is being coordinated and hosted by the 2020-22 Prince William Poet Laureate, Kim B. Miller. Miller was appointed by the Prince William County Arts Council, and they love to celebrate local artists.
When applying to be the Poet Laureate for Prince William, applicants must select a platform to run on. Miller’s was to expand poetry online so people could have access to poetry. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Miller was able to hone in her platform’s focus, and she shared poetry with schools by performing online for classes. She also recited poetry for churches, Northern Virginia Community College and other online programs.
“My platform is expanding poetry, especially online. When the application process started, we were already heavily affected by COVID, I had to include a big online component to my platform,” Miller said. “My platform includes establishing online avenues for people to explore our poetry and my poetry in Prince William and to establish (a web page) and a social media presence.”
Come Together
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Poetry Month reading would have occurred in person. Now it’s taking place online so viewers can stay safe and view a variety of poems from the comfort of their home.
Miller was responsible for notifying poets in the area to write and perform poems in a pre-recorded
video that will air the day of the reading. “I invited everyone in the Prince William Poet Laureate Circle to submit a video, because I wanted to make a video collage to present to everyone in April of all the phenomenal poets in the circle. I gave them plenty of notice (to work on their video). April will be very special for those who choose to participate,” Miller said.
As for the poem Miller plans to read? Not even she knows the answer to that question just yet.
“That’s the magic question. I can decide right now and then get there, that moment and decide I’m not reading it. So that’s why I never tell people ahead of time that I’m going to be reading any particular poem because in the end I may actually change my mind. And sometimes my decision is based on someone who read something beautiful, and it touched me and lead me to another poem I wrote, or ‘there have been six poems on that subject, so let me switch to a different subject.’ I don’t know which ones I’ll be reading yet until I see what everyone else picks. I definitely want it to be diverse and not have 20 poems on the same subject.”
Life Saver
Miller describes her poems as being “bold, unapologetic, blunt and real.” She writes a combination of different poems: full poems, freehand poems, haiku and what she calls “Kim-isms,” which are pieces of advice or quotes from Miller herself.
Miller wasn’t always a poet. She says her first love was dancing, and in high school she wrote love letters to her boyfriend who later became her husband. That’s when her love of writing began. To Miller, writing poetry gives her a freedom to write about anything from any perspective, whether she has experienced what she is writing about or not. It’s obvious poetry is important to Miller, and she hopes to share a small sliver of that importance with the people of Prince William during a time of uncertainty and isolation. She hopes that poetry, whether that be their own or someone else’s, helps them get through this difficult time.
“One (importance of poetry) is sanity, because I think writing in general is freeing because when you write your pain, you’re giving yourself freedom. Now, that doesn’t mean it solves everything. I’m not trying to make it all candy and rainbows, but it’s freeing when you are able to speak even to paper,” Miller said. “And in a time like COVID, where there is so much going on, some people feel isolated and some introverts may like some time to themselves. People react differently. I know some poets personally, who have said poetry has saved their lives. They were not talking metaphorically. The ability to speak on their pain, the ability to write their pain down, gave them solace and gave them permission to grieve and heal.”
For more information on the National Poetry Month reading visit pwcartscouncil.org/poet-laureate or kimbmiller.com/poet-laureate. For more information on Kim B. Miller visit kimbmiller.com.
Emily Carter is a senior at Virginia Tech majoring in Multimedia Journalism. She is currently the Lifestyles Editor at Virginia Tech’s student-run paper, the Collegiate Times. When she is not writing, she is either dancing alone to Taylor Swift or cooking herself a giant bowl of pasta.
