West Point resident Linda Toren is the county’s new poet laureate, replacing the first poet laureate, Conrad Levassuer, who was elected in 2020.
Toren’s term will last two years, during which the celebrated poet, author, and teacher will focus on one “cultural project” in addition to attending events and readings, “educating civic and community leaders about poetry” and continuing work towards the goal of “bringing poetry to school children who might otherwise have little opportunity to be exposed about the value of poetry and creative expression,” according to a press release from Friends of the Calaveras County Library, the fiscal sponsor for the poet laureate program.
Toren’s project of choice is what she is calling “community-sourced poems,” an idea that is a spin on one of the techniques Toren uses in her classrooms with children. Also called a crowd-sourced poem, Toren describes it as “created entirely from words submitted by the public on a particular topic or theme.” Toren is gathering material from each district in Calaveras—words, phrases, and lines—that she will weave into a final “community-sourced” poem. The theme Toren has provided for the project is celebrating features of “your district and/or why you live here.”
“Whatever I get, I will make one poem,” said Toren.
Toren has an extensive resume that includes a former career as an entomologist working at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and a master’s degree in ecology and systematic biology, yet her focus in recent decades has been sharing her skill as a wordsmith and experience as an educator with her local community. She currently directs the Voices of Wisdom program at Manzanita Writers Press, produces a radio program, Way with Words, on local KQBM Blue Mountain Radio that is dedicated to “celebrations of thought and language” and has judged Calaveras County Poetry Out Loud competitions at the local high schools.
Despite Toren being retired from her 25-year teaching career, she will continue bringing poetry to classrooms, as she has for over a decade, in her new role. Toren will also continue in her second year as a Teaching Artist through Amador Arts, bringing poetry to five schools and 35 classrooms in Amador County.
In addition to visiting local schools, Toren plans to visit each of Calaveras County’s libraries to share presentations, readings, and workshops with the public.
Toren has also been elected to perform as the grand marshall in the West Point Lumberjack Day Parade, an honor that speaks to her dedication and involvement in the community over the last few decades. Toren has recently crafted a poem to be permanently etched on a plaque in the West Point Art Path, a project to be completed in early fall of 2022 by West Point nonprofit Blue Mountain Coalition for Youth and Families, where Toren is a board member.
Submissions to Toren’s project can be sent to calaveraspoet@gmail.com or dropped off at any of Calaveras’ public libraries. Submissions should include the district the writer lives in.
The following is a poem by Toren that describes the Mokelumne River.
South Fork
Water carves rocks lodged between
the trunks of live oaks.
There is an identity
to each plant holy in its place—
The doe with river dew
upon her whiskers and
blackberries dry on the vine.
Leaves lie on the water and move
like little boats as they navigate the current,
sniff the scent of soil alive along the banks.
This is the marrow of a place
that tastes green and musty
that shape-shifts into shadows and shallows
the burning light of midday.
Who understands the terrain
as well as a river or creek?
This intimacy need not hide
the understatement of belonging
to each other. A turn of a ridge
guides the flow while the flow cuts
deep its strength irresistible.
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