SPLIT FLAP POETRY: Poems by Four Vermont Poet Laureates

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"I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree, and climb black branches up a snow-white trunk toward heaven." 

Robert Frost was the first Poet Laureate of Vermont and winner of four Pulitzer

Prizes. He lived in both Shaftsbury and Ripton, Vermont. He died in 1963.

"I lie so still that the earth around me/ Shakes with the weight of day."

Ruth Stone (2015-2011) was the sixth Poet Laureate of Vermont. She received the

National Book Award in 2002 and a Whitng Award in 1986. Her house has become

an historical landmark in Goshen, Vermont and is now being turned into a writers

and artists retreat under the auspices of the Ruth Stone Foundation.

"The love of form is a love of endings."

Louise Gluck was the second Poet Laureate of Vermont and 12th U.S. Poet. She is the

winner of Bollingen Prize from Yale University, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book

Award, and  National Book Critics Circle Award.

"Bless this time it takes to bless./ Bless this rail across the earth/ Bless this train that passes by."

Chard deNiord was the eighth Poet Laureate of Vermont. He is the author of six

books of poetry and two books of interviews with American poets. His poems have

appeared in Best American Poetry, the Pushcart Prize and numerous eminent literary

journals. He co-founded the New England College MFA Program and has taught at

Providence College since 1998. He lives in Westminster West, Vermont.