Annapolis picks creative writing teacher as poet laureate

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - What’s it take to be a poet laureate?

For Maggie Benshaw, it takes a desire to try something new and a leap.

A creative writing teacher at Annapolis High School, Benshaw writes poetry and teaches it to students in the Performing and Visual Arts program. But she’s never actually published a poem, instead committing them to years of journals.

So, she hesitated when the city called for applications for a new poet laureate. Then, she jumped.

“To me, when I think of a poet laureate, they are published,” she said. “But it was not a requirement. I am hoping that can happen down the road.”

Benshaw is the second Annapolis poet laureate, named Thursday (April 15) after a selection process run by the city’s Arts in Public Places Commission. Three other poets were interviewed.

“So, I had heard about it. But I wasn’t really sure. I had never really taken a leap before.”

Her poetry is confessionalism, and she finds value in making connections by sharing what happens in life. One of her favorite poets is a famed confessionalist, Sylvia Plath.

“I think there is nothing more beautiful than life, the things we go through. Being human. Writing about our trials and tribulations and our triumphs are just relatable items.

“When people do read my poetry, they’re able to make those connections.”

In her poem “I hear the rain,” Benshaw said she is writing about going through a hard time and turns to nature for a way to express it.

“Our room is silent, but I can hear the ping of rain

Chimes on steel to brittle glass from the breeze

I close my eyes and listen to the wind whisper

It is clear and clean and consistent

It lulls me to sleep and suspends me there

It lets me know that I am still in one world

When my mind is in my dark deformed delirium

When those poisonous pictures penetrate

When the pang in my hollow chest wakes me

I am fine.

I am fine.

I am fine.

I come back and can still hear - ping, pang

Even though I am upside down falling from my bed

Heart terrestrial and tryptophanic, yet tattered

Brain all a mush

I hear the rain

Then I know

I am fine.

I am fine.

I am fine.”

Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley started the poet laureate program to highlight the literary arts in the city.

The city’s first official poet was also a teacher, Naval Academy English professor Temple Cone. During his time in the office, he often wrote about longing and tragedy. One of his works dealt with the June 28, 2018 murder of five staff members in the newsroom of The Capital.

Benshaw said she knows Cone’s work and admires his themes.

In her poem, “Dusk,” Benshaw is writing about special moments with someone.

“When we lose them or it’s just the end of the friendship, their memories, that can be the most beautiful thing we hold, they’re embedded,” she said. “They become part of us.”

“Dusk is usually where I find myself -

When the humming of the day has given itself up

To the crisp evening that awaits.

Dusk is also you; it once was us.

The orange and pink hues that float in the sky

Remind me of our walks at dusk.

Where our secrets from the day slowly slipped from our mumbling mouths,

But we forgave each other within the dusk and twilight -

Because we knew that a fresh day was shortly upon us,

And believed in the forgiveness of love.

Your youthful face in the disappearing light of the dusk is embedded in my memory -

I fear it will live there forever.”

Benshaw moved to Annapolis a few years after graduating from Lycoming College in her hometown, Williamsport, Pennsylvania. She is working toward her Masters of Education with a Reading Specialist Certification through Goucher College.

Like everyone else, her life has been affected by COVID-19. She taught through remote learning and had to postpone her wedding plans for this spring because of COVID restrictions still in place in Williamsport.

When she moved here in 2017, she got involved with the Dragon Boat rowing club. Last season was canceled and she’s looking forward to getting back on the water when Spa Creek warms up.

Students in her classroom found out about her new position Friday afternoon. There were congratulations and surprise.

“I didn’t tell a lot of people that I was applying,” she said.

Benshaw is a little apprehensive about her first public poetry reading, part of the job. But she figures skills gained from standing in front of a classroom full of teenagers will get her through.

“I think being a teacher helps,” she said. “I kind of put on a show every day.”