Editorial
Traci Brimhall
Special to the Globe
Poetry grows here.
In my first two years as poet laureate of Kansas, I have worked to unite the state’s agricultural roots and the literary arts.
I created video poems of work by Kansas poets that featured food and fall. I’m working on a poetry cookbook. And most recently, I helped bring poetry to the Kansas State Fair.
The past two weeks, 20 signs were placed around the fair that featured poems about wheat, goats, quilts, butter, flower arranging and chickens. Poetry has never been so delicious.
Bringing poetry to the state fair was one of my first goals as laureate. Since the fair celebrates animal husbandry, crops and other domestic arts like woodworking and pottery, it felt like a natural fit for my work trying to unite food and poetry.
Almost everyone I wrote to and asked to be a part of bringing poetry to the state fair said yes. I reached out to poets from across Kansas and tried to work with poets from all four corners. Of the 20 poets who participated, major cities like Topeka, Wichita and Lawrence were represented, but so were Emporia, Hays, Pittsburg and Scott City. We had cowboy poets, student poets, librarians, and poetry teachers. Even among a group of 20 poets we had a great range of diversity of Kansas voices.
Each of the 20 poets was paired with one of the fair exhibits and asked to respond that theme. They also had the extra challenge of keeping the poems extremely short so they could fit on signs that would be displayed across the fair.
Although everyone worked independently on their poetry assignments, nine of the 20 poets also got together to read the state fair-inspired poems Sept. 7 at the House of Capper on the state fairgrounds. Before our poetry reading, there was dancing. After the reading, there was music. It was a bustling area where many gathered and listened to the whole set of poems, but also there were people who sat and listened for a few poems and then moved on to look for corn dogs and ice cream.
It was a wonderful celebration of Kansas animals, food and culture. It was a joy to bring poetry to a space it hadn’t been before and to hopefully have people encounter a poem when they might not otherwise encounter one.
Looking for the poems across the fair is a fun scavenger hunt if you know to look for them. I got excited entering new buildings and looking around for the next poem.
I knew ahead of time to keep an eye out for the deep blue and golden signs that were scattered across the exhibits. I took pictures with as many as I could find and posed next to some of them. The Kansas Arts Commission designed the signs beautifully, and the staff at the state fair were incredibly welcoming and helpful as we brought a new idea to the fair events.
I visited the birthing barn and watched a calf be born. I had my funnel cake and lemonade. And before I left the fair, I knew I had one more thing to do — ride the Ferris wheel. At the top, I could look below at the roofs of all the exhibit halls and the lights from all the other rides. All those other human voices together below me sounded like a cheer. Even amidst all that energy and movement, it felt calm and full of grace.
It is my hope that this is the first of many years that poetry can be included in the state fair. If you are interested in reading the poems that were featured this year, you can visit the Kansas Arts Commission page and read or listen to the poems.
I hope a seed was planted that other fairgoers will help nourish and see all that can be cared for and grown here in Kansas.
Traci Brimhall is a professor of creative writing and narrative medicine at Kansas State University. She’s the current poet laureate for the state of Kansas. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.
