National Poetry Month began April 1, and Paulann Petersen, Poet Laureate of Oregon, has spent the first two weeks of it racking up travel miles. She has driven 20,000 miles already, crisscrossing Oregon several times in the first three years of her tenure as poet laureate, bringing poetry to over 40 schools and 67 libraries in 71 cities and towns.

This month she connects with even more Oregonians through workshops and readings, including first-time visits to North Salem High School, Cottage Grove Public Library, Siuslaw Public Library in Florence, Amity Schools, and Beverly Cleary School in Northeast Portland.

Petersen estimates she has read or offered poetry workshops to over 12,000 Oregonians, including large university commencements, school assemblies, and more intimate discussions in communities like Pendleton and Christmas Valley.

On April 23, Petersen will draw attention to National Poetry Month by providing the invocation for the opening of the Oregon House of Representatives floor session in the State Capitol. She will also illustrate the relationship of the Oregon Poet Laureate and the Oregon Cultural Trust. The poet laureate position was vacant and unfunded from 1989 until 2006, when the five statewide partners of the Cultural Trust came together to back the program with funds from the Trust.

The program is currently managed by Trust partner Oregon Humanities.”If it weren’t for the Cultural Trust,” said Petersen, “Oregon wouldn’t have a poet laureate.” In support of the Trust, she has organized a day-long poetry workshop at the Milwaukie Library on April 27, from which she’ll contribute the participants’ $30 registration fee to the Trust. The workshop is currently sold out with a long waiting list.

National Poetry Month was established by the Academy of American Poets in 1995 and inaugurated by President Bill Clinton on April 1, 1996 by. “We should have a month when we celebrate poetry in our lives,” said Petersen. She cites monthly commemorations such as Black History and Women’s History months, and reminds people that, beyond racial and gender struggles, poetry has played a role in both Black and women’s history. “How could we celebrate Black History Month and Women’s History Month and not celebrate poets like Langston Hughes and Emily Dickinson?” she offered.

Despite her travel schedule as Oregon’s poetry ambassador, Petersen did find time to put together a new book, Understory. To cap off National Poetry Month, she will give a reading from this collection on April 29 at Powell’s Books in Portland.