Poet Laureate’s News
July 1, 2026
Greetings, poetry community.
It’s been fun for me to celebrate poetry over the past two years with all of the poetry enthusiasts out there. Thank you to everyone who’s ever read a poem, written a poem, recited a poem, attended a poetry reading, and so on. We are one community and we are Sonoma Strong.
Please join me as our community congratulates and inaugurates Claire Drucker as our 14th Poet Laureate at a ceremony to be held at Sebastopol Center for the Arts on Sunday July 12 from 2 to 5 PM. Find more information here: https://www.sebarts.org/literary-arts
As I depart, I’m reminded of the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, whose poem “A Fire of Driftwood” I recently memorized. One of the stanzas goes:
That first slight swerving of the heart
that words are powerless to express
and leave it still unsaid in part
or say it in too great excess.
In reflecting on my time as poet laureate, rather than say things in too great excess, I will leave some things unsaid. I am grateful to have been entrusted with the laurels over the past two years. I will always consider myself to be—Lucky 13—having served as Sonoma County’s 13th Poet Laureate. Wishing you all good things through poetry.
Dave Seter
Sonoma County Poet Laureate 2024-2026
dssocolaureate@gmail.com
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Archives of previous Poet Laureate columns may be found here for 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016-2017, 2018-2020, 2020-2022, 2022-2024 and 2024-2026.