A Day in the Life of a Poet Laureate
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Opening the San Mateo County Board of Chambers Meeting on January 29, 2019
It’s now 3:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning. I just came home from an event a couple of hours ago. In a few more hours, I’ll be attending a breakfast meeting in San Jose (California). I have laundry on Sunday, a poetry reading in the City (San Francisco) on Monday night, and a Skype meeting the following night about the poetry competition I’ll be judging in Foster City on Friday night. On Saturday, I’ll be attending my congresswoman’s book launch in Half Moon Bay. I have two events to go to the following day, and a magazine interview the following night. I’ll be co-hosting a Poetry Reception in Millbrae on Valentine’s Day, and reading at the Arts Commission meeting in Redwood City the following week.
Next month, I’ll be the keynote speaker at a Women on Writing conference in San Bruno, and co-hosting a Women’s History Month poetry celebration in Daly City. I have a television interview, two poetry concerts, and a poetry workshop to lead in April. In May, I’ll be participating in the Asian Pacific American Film Festival in San Mateo, and the 78th Annual Memorial Day Observance at the National Cemetery in San Bruno. June is reserved for workshops and the San Mateo County Fair. And every quarter for the next two years, I will open the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors meeting with a poem.
With The Honorable Warren Slocum, Vice President of the Board of Supervisors of San Mateo County; Lisa Rosenberg, Poet Laureate 2017/2018 (left); and Poet Laureate Emerita Caroline Goodwin
The really hard work, though, happens during the week: from Monday to Friday, I wake up at 5 a.m., head off to San Francisco at 6, get my coffee at 6:30, and am in front of my laptop by 7. Between 7 a.m. and 8:30, I respond to emails, and do some literary research (I’m a research poet and this is part of my methodology). Between 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., I work for a living. After 5:30, while sitting in traffic, I (try to) write poems. I get home around 7 p.m. (unless I have a poetry or work-related event to go to), and between 8 p.m. and 10, I work on Paloma Press stuff and other Poet Laureate business.
A Poet Laureate is an ambassador for the literary arts—which means s/he is tasked with “elevating, advocating, and celebrating poetry by making it more accessible to people in their everyday lives.” Which means it isn’t about the poet, but about the community s/he serves. Which also means any actual writing happens whenever and wherever s/he gets the chance to do it.
The San Mateo County Poet Laureate charter was created by the Board of Supervisors, and is administered with the support of the San Mateo County Libraries. It is one of the more well-resourced Poet Laureate programs in the U.S., which speaks of the high regard in which the literary arts are held in the community. The call for nominations was announced middle of last year, and I almost missed the deadline. My sister had ticked all the boxes and had everything ready (except for the community project proposal, which I had to write) when she called me during lunch at work, and hounded me to apply. It would be my second time (I was a finalist in 2016). I decided to sleep on it. I already led a busy life, working full-time at a diplomatic mission and running an independent literary press in my spare time. In the end, though I was pretty sure I wouldn’t get it, I had to try.
With Aileen’s husband and aunts and uncles: (L-R) Victor Mangalindan, Paul Cassinetto, Aileen, Erlinda Mangalindan, Lorna Alvear, & Joseph Alvear
I was interviewed in September by a 12-member Poet Laureate Advisory Committee, which included Supervisors Carole Groom and Warren Slocum, as well as Arts Commission and library officials, former and current poets laureate, and other local writers. After the interview, my first thought was, “That’s done, I could put it behind me. (Big sigh and off to work.)” Sometime around 3 p.m., I checked my phone and found several messages and an email from Lisa Rosenberg, my predecessor, asking me to call her back. I did and left her a message. Around 7 p.m., after getting take-out with my husband, I got another call from Lisa. I think she said, “Congratulations.” I was so stunned I had to sit down on the corner of 4th Avenue and San Mateo Drive. I think my husband whispered, “You got it,” and I think I called my sister, and I think she said, “I told you.”
I was officially appointed Poet Laureate by the Board of Supervisors of San Mateo County on October 23, 2018, began my term on January 1st, and until December 31, 2020, I expect my days will be pretty much like it was yesterday: hurtling forward with my astonishments and my cares. And at the junction of too early and too late, poetry speaks of names I’ve yet to say, and communities I’ve yet to find.
Still, like air
“You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.”
—Maya Angelou
we rise toward
the light, our movement
widening as though
in prayer, holy
and urgent. I will
say your name—
an act of love
more powerful than
the weight of air
or the falling of light.
Like clouds speaking
their truth—every
heap and layer, every
curl of hair, a reckoning.
Still, I pray
for grace, to hear
your story, and what
you know of clouds—
why they shine
at night, where they
touch the ground,
how they birth a star.
Perhaps you will
want to know
my story, and why these
queries—like, what
will it cost
to cross an inch
of scorn? Or climb a wall
of fear? How much
to plough the air,
to read the clouds?
How much for a sip
of water, a gulp
of air? How much
for three square
feet of space?
For the narrowest
breathing place?
How much for
the life of my child.
Still, I ask—
an act
of grace as I rise
toward the light.
(A poem by Aileen Cassinetto read to open the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors Meeting on January 29, 2019.)
Aileen Cassinetto
Aileen Cassinetto is the third Poet Laureate of San Mateo County, the first Asian American appointed to the post. She is the author of Traje de Boda (Meritage Press, 2010) and The Pink House of Purple Yam Preserves & Other Poems (Our Own Voice & Little Dove Books, 2018), as well as three chapbooks through Moria Books’ acclaimed Locofo series. She is also co-publisher of Paloma Press, an independent literary press established in 2016, which has released 12 books to date.
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