State poet completes trek to bring poetry to every Nebraska county
Not many people can say they've traveled to all 93 counties in Nebraska. However, State Poet Matt Mason has not only visited every county, but also taught and read poetry in each one.
On Saturday, Mason visited Trenton in Hitchcock County, where he officially marked off the final stop toward his goal to hold one poetry event in each Nebraska county during his five-year tenure as state poet.
"It really feels amazing," Mason said. "It wasn't easy to schedule everything, so I'm just grateful that even through the pandemic, through everything, to have gotten this much done is a real thrill."
The Omaha native was selected in 2019 by former Gov. Pete Ricketts to be Nebraska's state poet to serve a five-year term and advocate for poetry, literacy and literature.
According to the Nebraska State Historical Society, Nebraska became the first state to choose a state poet laureate in 1921 when the Legislature named John Neihardt to fill the role in perpetuity. After his death, William Kloefkorn was appointed as state poet in 1982 and served until his death in 2011. In 2013, the lifetime appointment then changed to a five-year renewable term.
Mason, whose term will end in December, is the second poet to serve the shorter term limit after Twyla Hansen.
No two events are the same for Mason, who visited schools, libraries, opera houses, theaters, parks, senior centers and wherever else he could find space.
"I would suit it to whatever they really wanted," Mason said. "They're all different in some way."
Whether he hosted readings or held poetry workshops, Mason's goal was to leave people more open-minded about poetry.
"I'm hoping that my travels show people a different side of poetry than they expect it to be," he said.
While his love for poetry has flourished, Mason didn't always have a fond spot for it. As a high school student, he struggled to find a connection to poetry.
"I didn't like it, but I started writing it because I found it helped me deal with the world and process things going on around me or internally," Mason said. "Even though I didn't think I liked poetry, I knew writing it helped me just be a better person and understand myself more."
While in college, Mason met a visiting professor who arrived with a "huge ball of energy" and it was hard not to catch onto his excitement about poetry. That spark helped foster his learning about different poets and types of poetry.
Through his travels across Nebraska, Mason sought to bring that same enthusiasm to people of all ages.
"I think the best way to teach poetry is just to show excitement about it," he said.
Rather than focusing on the properness of poetry such as alliteration, similes or metaphors, Mason said he walks into the room and tries to make the audience laugh.
"I think a big part that we have lost sight of for about 100 years is just the enjoyability of poetry, that it's a form of entertainment, that that's where it comes from," Mason said.
Although Mason can say he successfully visited each county, it was far from an easy trek. After nearly 150 events, Mason's traveling expedition was put on pause for the COVID-19 pandemic and the events turned to Zoom readings and workshops.
"That slowed me down for a couple years, but since then, I've really been getting to a lot of counties," Mason said.
When things picked back up, Mason tried to strategize the trips to balance his home life with his travels. After choosing a destination, he would add in other stops such as library visits or school presentations along the way.
Mason has successfully held more than 600 events around Nebraska, many of which he said wouldn't have been possible without the support from the communities he visited.
"There's no way I could have done this by myself," Mason said. "There's been so much support."
While Mason was responsible for calling and emailing to set up each event, he built connections with people at prior events who then connected him with people in counties he had yet to visit.
"I just really appreciate all the people around Nebraska," Mason said. "I'm just grateful for everybody who helped make a cool thing happen. The arts are important, poetry adds a lot of value to daily life that I think people don't realize all the time. It's great to be able to reach so many different parts of the state this way and show these students that poetry is fun and interesting and more accessible than they often start out thinking."
After meeting with thousands of Nebraskans the past five years, Mason said it has been "a blast and a real honor" to share his love for poetry.
"I believe poetry is something that is overlooked, but it's a way of entering somebody else's experiences and their emotions, and we need more of that in the world. We need more communication on that level between people so we can understand each other and understand ourselves," Mason said.
Although Mason's term will end in December, he doesn't plan to stop visiting schools and communities.
"This is what I'm best at and this is what I love, so I want to keep doing it," Mason said.
