A poet laureate gives poetry a public point of contact: a reading, a conversation, a collection of voices, or a project that helps people encounter poems. In the United States, the national position is based at the Library of Congress. Its projects offer useful ways to begin reading and listening.
This guide explains the U.S. role and gives you three different routes into its public work. Start with the kind of experience you want, then follow a poem beyond the title of the office.
What the U.S. poet laureate does
The official title is Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. The Librarian of Congress makes the appointment. The Library deliberately keeps formal duties limited, allowing the poet room to shape the work; an opening reading and a closing event are traditional. A national project is an opportunity, rather than a requirement. See the Library’s explanation of the position.
The consultantship began in 1937. Legislation passed in 1985 established the laureate title, effective in 1986. This distinction matters when reading older biographies: Robert Frost, for example, served as a consultant in poetry under the earlier title.
Appointment information: as checked October 7, 2026, the Library identifies Arthur Sze as the current U.S. poet laureate. Use the official Poet Laureate page for the latest appointment and program information.
For a state, city, youth, or another country’s laureateship, check the organization that appoints the poet. Establish the jurisdiction, term, and sponsoring body before comparing titles. Those details tell you which public and which program a particular announcement concerns.
Choose a project by what you want to do
| Your starting wish | Project | A first action |
|---|---|---|
| Make room for a poem in an ordinary day | Billy Collins’s Poetry 180 | Choose a short poem and read it aloud. |
| Hear people talk together about poems | Tracy K. Smith’s American Conversations | Explore one community visit and note a question you would bring. |
| Hear contemporary Native poets in their own voices | Joy Harjo’s Living Nations, Living Words | Choose a recording, then read its transcript and commentary. |
These are selected projects by former laureates. They show different uses of the position and remain starting places for readers after the appointments that produced them.
Billy Collins: a poem in the school day
Poetry 180 was designed to bring a poem into each day of an approximately 180-day high-school year. Collins’s introduction gives schools flexibility about who reads, when the poem is heard, and how frequently they participate. Listening itself is central; discussion can follow when listeners want it.
Open the list of 180 poems and choose one that invites your attention. Read it privately before presenting it. Say the author and title, leave a brief silence afterward, and allow a listener to return to an image without immediately demanding an explanation.
The program’s own guidance also explains its intended school uses and when further permission may be needed. Follow those instructions if you plan to reproduce or distribute texts. A link to the official poem gives others a clear way to continue reading.
Tracy K. Smith: poems in conversation
During 2018, Smith’s American Conversations took poetry into rural communities. The project used shared poems as openings for conversation among people whose experiences might differ.
Explore a documented visit and notice the relationship between a poem and the questions it makes possible. For your own group, choose a passage everyone can access and ask each person to name a detail before discussing an interpretation.
A useful discussion question: “Which word made you pause, and what did it bring into focus?” This original prompt allows different readings to enter the room while keeping attention on the poem.
Joy Harjo: place, voice, and living traditions
Living Nations, Living Words brings together recordings of 47 contemporary Native poets reading and discussing their work. The collection includes poems, transcripts, photographs, and biographical material, with place and displacement among its organizing concerns.
Begin with one poet’s recording. Read the accompanying information and listen again for pace, emphasis, and the relation between the poem and its commentary. Keep the poet’s specific name and community context with your notes; the collection presents distinct voices and experiences.
The educator guide offers a structured route for teachers. An individual reader can also use it to move from an initial listening experience into closer attention to language and place.
Turn a first visit into a reading habit
- Choose one destination. A single poem or short recording is enough for a first visit.
- Keep its identity. Record author, title, project, and the official link.
- Notice an effect. Name a sound, image, pause, or change of voice and what it does.
- Follow a connection. Read another poem by that writer or explore a second voice in the same project.
- Return to the source before an event. Check the event’s date, access instructions, and any reservation requirements on its own listing.
For a longer project, use the National Poetry Month reading plan. For individual writers, browse Poets. Return to the Poetry library when you want a route by feeling, occasion, or reading task.