The document is a newspaper article that profiles Michael Collier, the poet laureate of Maryland. It discusses his background growing up in Arizona, how he came to live in Maryland, and his process for writing poetry. It also outlines his role as poet laureate, in which he visits schools and libraries to share his enthusiasm for poetry and help develop emerging writers. The article provides analysis of some of Collier's poems and praises his ability to make poetry accessible to general audiences.

1. Patrick McNabb – Bay Weekly Example (and First Published Article)
He’s as much a Maryland treasure as a blue crab boiled in
Old Bay.
by Patrick E. McNabb
(as published in the Bay Weekly, a local Chesapeake tabloid, Sept 26 – Oct. 2, 2002)
The poet laureate of Maryland likes his crabs boiled in Old Bay and beer. Salty.
Very salty.
But he wasn’t always so smart.
“Out of ignorance, I cooked with water many years ago,” confesses Collier. No
wonder. He’s a born Westerner, hailing from Arizona. He’s lived in Maryland only
since 1984. But it’s Maryland he calls home.
“Maryland has become a home for me in a way that my birthplace never was. I’ve
always felt like I was meant to go to another place, a place with trees and
weather,” says he.
Not to mention crabs and Old Bay.
“Maryland is that kind of place for me,” he professes. “Because I am home, I’m
able to write comfortably.”

2. Patrick McNabb – Bay Weekly Example (and First Published Article)
As the critics agree. Collier’s latest collection of poems, The Ledge (2000), was a
finalist for the National Book Critics’ Circle Award for Poetry.
On Poetry, Collier Is Maryland’s Main Man
That success is one of the reasons that, early in 2001, Collier was elevated to the
lofty post of poet laureate of Maryland.
Poet laureates don’t necessarily sing their songs for presidents and governors.
But that’s who hires them, and the honor of the thing is considerable, making up
for the pay, which is nonexistent.
Michael Collier “is a Maryland treasure,” said Gov. Parris Glendening at Collier’s
installation as poet laureate.
He is Maryland’s seventh laureate since the post was created by the Maryland
General Assembly in 1959, and the second appointed by Glendening. The last
was Roland Flint [Vol VI, No. 15, 1998], no longer among us. Both Flint and an
earlier laureate, Linda Pastan, are friends and influences of Collier.
“All of the laureates who have preceded me are terrific poets” Collier says,
adding, “Roland Flint is someone I learned a great deal from.”
Collier’s honorary position gives him official permission to do what he likes best:
reaching out to his fellow citizens and sharing his enthusiasm for poetry.
As poet laureate, Collier regularly visits local libraries, schools, civic clubs or
wherever else he may be invited. His goal is always the same: to educate, excite
and enlighten citizens young and old about the art and craft of poetry.
Collier is well suited to this role. Since 1984, he has been a professor in the
English department of the University of Maryland College Park while also serving
as the co-director of the school’s Creative Writing Program. Collier’s own writing
is pretty creative, as well.
Collier’s Poetic Recipe
Like the recipe he uses for cooking his crabs, a Collier poem consists of many
elements that must be perfectly blended.
First, Collier writes in a free verse, holding his poems together with the alliteration
of consonants and assonance of vowel sounds but little rhyme. The stanzas
often break the verses in mid-sentence, urging the reader to absorb the whole
poem, not just small parts.
Next, Collier’s poems tend to be allegorical, taking us to a place far away from
where they begin. “I always think the greater the distance the more interesting
the poem,” he says.

3. Patrick McNabb – Bay Weekly Example (and First Published Article)
Finally, like the bright, bright red of a freshly boiled crab, Collier’s poems are
vibrant with richly textured descriptions and clever word play.
Consider “The Wave” to see how the poet combines all of these elements. Set
during a baseball game at Baltimore’s old Memorial Stadium, the poem
preserves a moment in time long after the score has been forgotten.
Collier starts simply. He describes the vendors and the crowd, using phrases like
“the Budman with his quick-pouring mechanism strapped to his wrist like a
prosthesis” and the “skinny kid sitting between fat parents.”
Next he quickens the tempo as a few buzzed soldiers who “have paced each
other with a beer an inning” begin to urge on the crowd.
Here’s what happens next:
At first only a few respond, but like molecules quickening
or cells dividing or herds stampeding we coalesce —
orison provoking unison — section by section, as if
township by township, our standing up and sitting down
becomes the Simon Says and Mother May I? of a nation,
as it runs through our rippling, shimmering upraised hands
that form the crest of a wave built on the urges
and urgings of the soldiers …
Like a good crab gumbo, “The Wave” should be savored and not slurped.
You might think that a state poet would have to write sonnets to the Chesapeake
or poems about the Patuxent. But not Collier. His subjects are his life, family and
people he knows.
“I’m not really much of a nature poet, although I’ve got a lot of birds in my
poems,” he says.
One of those, “Brave Sparrow,” is Collier’s favorite among his poems. Set in the
world of a small bird, the poem is an allegory for the individual in an often
frightening world.
And if you see the robins
in their dirty orange vests
patrolling the yard like thugs,
forget about the worm. Starve
yourself …

4. Patrick McNabb – Bay Weekly Example (and First Published Article)
Collier doesn’t like to be pinned down on his themes, but if you think hard, you’ll
see it’s the changing nature of the moment that fascinates him.
Early Bookworm Gets the Prize
So how did an Arizona Cardinal become a Baltimore Raven?
Collier was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1953. As a kid, he spent much of his free
time at the local library absorbing the works of Robert Frost, Walt Whitman,
Elizabeth Bishop, John Donne and John Berryman.
“I read a lot as a kid,” says Collier. Although I don’t think I necessarily read more
than any other typical bookworm boy or girl, I wanted to make something out of
words.”
Collier wrote his way through college, and in 1979 earned a master’s degree in
fine arts from the University of Arizona at Tucson. “In writing, it felt as if I was
participating in some fuller way,” he said.
Two years later, he was invited to attend his first Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference
at Middlebury, Vermont. It was not only a prestigious invitation but one that would
change his life.
Begun by such notables as Robert Frost and Willa Cather, the annual August
conference of writers of all sorts has been described as “one of America’s most
valuable literary institutions.”
At Bread Loaf, Collier met and became friends with future Maryland laureates
Pastan and Flint. The timing was also fortunate in another way. Collier’s wife,
Katherine, a librarian who would later become director of the Anne Arundel
Community College Library, had just accepted a job at the National Library of
Medicine in D.C.
“My wife and I were living in San Diego, California,” says Collier. “When we came
to Washington, I knew two people already in Linda Pastan and Roland Flint.”
They left the area some eight years ago for New Haven, Connecticut. Katherine
Collier worked at Yale, while he commuted back to the University of Maryland.
They didn’t stay.
“We had the opportunity to live there permanently,” he says. “But we missed
Maryland terribly. It had to do with the friendliness of the people and their
openness. New England didn’t feel quite as open and friendly.”
In Maryland, he also rubbed shoulders with poets whose standards challenged
his own.

5. Patrick McNabb – Bay Weekly Example (and First Published Article)
“There are lots of wonderful poets in Maryland,” says Collier. In addition to
Pastan and Flint, Collier praises Lucille Clifton, the poet laureate from 1979-1985
under Gov. Harry Hughes, and Michael Glaser of St. Mary’s College.
“Michael Glaser is terrific,” Collier says.
Collier must have been pretty good, too. In 1995, he became director of the
Bread Loaf Conference. This esteemed honor is practical as well as ceremonial.
As director, Collier helps nurture and develop the talents of emerging writers and
poets, much as he was once helped.
Sounds a lot like a poet laureate,
doesn’t it?
Among the People
As poet laureate, Collier extends the
work he does at Bread Loaf, reaching
out not just to the privileged few but to
all our citizens.
At a recent reading at the Calvert
County Library in Prince Frederick, Bay
citizens gathered together to listen to
Collier’s poems and ask questions.
Prince Frederick residents and amateur
poets Carla and Anita Hooper came to
see Collier in hopes of getting some
writing tips.
“What we write are more like rhymes. His are like short stories that were very
emotional,” Carla Hooper said.
“I didn’t know that Maryland had a poet laureate,” said Karen Chambers of St.
Leonard. “I think his poetry is easy to read and easy to understand. There’s
nothing inaccessible about his poetry, like a lot of more contemporary poets who
have streams of consciousness.”
Dan Fisher, former journalist and English teacher at Windy Hill Middle School,
came to get some ideas on how to turn kids on to poetry.
“I thought he really did a nice job,” said Fisher, who promised to use Collier’s
poems in the classroom. “I think they’re the kind of poems that anyone could
easily understand.”
Among the people, Collier doesn’t just read; he shares his recipes for successful
writing.
photo courtesy of Governor’s Press
Office
Poet laureate Michael Collier is sworn in
with Gov. Glendening and Collier’s wife,
Katherine, looking on.

6. Patrick McNabb – Bay Weekly Example (and First Published Article)
“The most important thing for anybody who wants to write is to just read
constantly,” Collier says. “It’s through reading that you find you’re learning how to
write.”
But what should you read?
First, read what you’re interested in writing. To that, add a good dose of current
literary work and criticism.
Then, you think of yourself as a writer.
“You begin to figure out where it is you want your work to be published,” he says.
Finally, we all know where the pudding is proved.
“At some point,” he says, “you send your short stories or poem to the editors and
test yourself that way.
“This is the way that writers for the last 150 years or so have got themselves
going.”
Finally, Collier adds a bit of encouragement:
“The great thing about writing is that you only need a pencil, a piece of paper and
a library card.”
To read more of Collier’s poetry, visit your local library or bookstore or
attend one of his readings. The next scheduled reading is November 29
at Maryland Institute College of the Arts, E. Preston St. Baltimore:
410/225-2300.

7. Patrick McNabb – Bay Weekly Example (and First Published Article)
The Wave, Scientific
Take 25 to 35 bored fans. Add one or two instigators, like “a few buzzed
soldiers.”
What do you get?
The Wave!
In the journal Nature, Tamas Vicsek and his colleagues report their study of this
universal sports phenomena. They watched the footage of several Mexican
stadium crowds, applied a mathematical model and analyzed the results.
The scientists discovered that the wave tends to go clockwise at an average
speed about 20 seats a second. They say their research could have applications
in riots or other settings where predicting large crowds is critical.
Copyright 2002
Bay Weekly