Westwood Public Library
Westwood, Massachusetts

Poet Laureate

The Town of Westwood's new Poet Laureate for the term 2025-2027 is Beth Swinning. The honorary position of Poet Laureate was established to promote and celebrate poetry in the Westwood community.

Swinning will also mentor and collaborate with the town’s Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate, a position also established by the Select Board in Spring 2023. The 2025-2026 academic year’s Youth Poet Laureate is Charles Goodman, Westwood High School Class of 2026.

Poetry has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. As an elementary student, I have vivid memories of creating poetry with various teachers and honing my craft through workshops and seminars. As I grew older, poetry became my main form of self-expression and self-reflection. Boxes of spiral-bound notebooks filled with poetry clutter my basement from my teenage years, where everything felt so intensely had to be expressed. As a young adult, newly married with a small child, I moved across the country to Massachusetts, a state I had never stepped foot in before that moment. Poetry was my vehicle as I struggled to reconnect with and work on this new version of myself. I discovered and began to attend weekly open mic poetry nights in a small café in East Bridgewater and found my new self. 

Now, years later, I find myself living in the amazing town of Westwood, MA. When I became the librarian at the Martha Jones School in 2015, I felt an immediate sense of belonging that I had been missing up to that point. When my daughter graduated from high school in 2019, I moved my family to Westwood so that my youngest son could experience the incredible community that is Westwood and the wonderful people that fill our public schools.

I use poetry in my lessons year-round as a teacher and librarian. My favorite month of teaching has become April. National Poetry Month is my time to focus on and really embrace the medium with the students and get them excited about poetry. One of the first things I explain to my students about poetry is that poetry is art—art with words. Poetry can be anything you need or want it to be. It can be one word long or a thousand words long. Poetry can rhyme or not. It can be written with all capitals or no capitals. It can go in a straight line from left to right, or if you would like, it can go up and down or even in circles. Poetry can make you feel anything or let you express anything. Poetry can be sounds and pictures, tastes and feelings. Most of all, poetry can be fun!

I think that many people are first introduced to poetry through Shel Silverstein. His humorous and relatable poems ensnare our youngest readers, and many older readers still remember their favorites. My most recent poetry is written with children in mind, created either for a lesson, as an example, or inspired by some of the more quirky parts of spending most days with small children. 

As Poet Laureate, my goal is to bring the art and wonder of poetry to the poets and future poets of Westwood. We will explore poetry as art and expression and discover how fun and freeing it can be. I would like to reach those who might not think of themselves as poets by introducing various forms of “found poetry.” With the amazing collection at the Westwood Public Library, we can create poetry art together through workshops on Spine Poetry, Blackout Poetry, Concrete Poetry, and more. I would love to bring poetry to all corners of Westwood, showcasing this art in schools, businesses, libraries, and parks.

There is also space for those who might need a safe place to express themselves without fear or judgment. A place to belong. A place to be heard and to listen to others through regularly scheduled open mic poetry nights.  

For updates, weekly poems, and information on events, please visit Beth Swinning Poet Laureate website here 

The Poet Laureate and the Youth Poet Laureate positions are sponsored by a gift from the Westwood Public Library's 21st Century Fund. 

Contact the Poet Laureate

What is a Poet Laureate?       

Why would Westwood need a Poet Laureate? What does that entail and why do we need poetry in the municipal sphere? What practical purpose can a Poet Laureate serve? All good questions!

Many other municipalities in Massachusetts have already established Poet Laureates and have explained it thus:

Just as a town has common property — the town library, the town hall, the town parks — there is a common human landscape inhabited by all whose lives are rooted in a place. It’s a landscape of history, attitudes and common experiences. Without someone striving to weave the community into words, a town’s identity remains the unexamined sum of fleeting moments. Whether or not one agrees with the Poet Laureate’s words, they can help to crystallize the town’s view of itself. The Poet Laureate holds up a mirror so the town can see itself. https://westtisburylibrary.org/

And as Ellie O’Leary, Poet Laureate of Amesbury, MA states “In the civic sphere, poetry can offer succinctness that is not available in other writing. Even people who say they don’t 'get' poetry will sometimes find themselves reading or quoting it in stressful times.”

Having a town sponsored Poet can be a gift to the community and create a lasting archive of a living history of Westwood seen through poetry. The Poet Laureate for Westwood typically writes poems about the town, the time, and the spirit of Westwood. We have a history of Westwood through photos, newspapers, letters, and so much more; establishing a Poet Laureate to write poems for Westwood would create a unique time capsule of Westwood seen through poems. 

The Poet Laureate might mark Westwood’s upcoming quasquicentennial (125th anniversary) with a poem that captures the life, essence, and identity of this community in the year 2023.

Poets have commemorated the history of the nation, the state, the city, for decades. For example,

Robert Frost, “The Gift Outright,” inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, 1961. 

Maya Angelou, “On the Pulse of Morning," first inauguration of President Bill Clinton,1993

Miller Williams, “Of History and Hope” at the second inauguration of President Bill Clinton, 1997

Richard Blanco, “One Today,” second inauguration of President Barack Obama, 2013

Amanda Gorman, “The Hill We Climb,” inauguration of President Joe Biden, 2021

When we lack words for how we are feeling, what we have accomplished,  what we are proud of, or where we want to go, poets can create something that unites us as a community.

Beth Swinning earned her Bachelor of Science degree in anthropology and her Master’s Degree in Elementary Education from University of Massachusetts Boston, and her Masters of Education in Library Media from Salem State University.  She has served as school librarian at Martha Jones since 2015, and lives in Westwood with her family.

 "Poetry has always been a part of my life. It has been my main tool for self-reflection and self-expression. As a library teacher, I share my love of poetry with my students every year and open them up to this amazing creative outlet."

Lynne Viti, 2023-2025