In keeping with the theme of literary appreciation, I think it’s appropriate to call the uproar over the governor’s pick for poet laureate “much ado about nothing.”
While the sitting governor has traditionally accepted the Poetry Society of New Hampshire’s recommendation and put the person up for an Executive Council vote, the decision is ultimately up to the governor. At the end of the day, the Poetry Society makes a recommendation, and recommendations are not binding. There is no statutory or other mandate that the governor must nominate the recommended poet.
The society has said that Gov. Sununu’s nominee, Daniel Thomas Moran, applied for the position and also has admitted that Moran is qualified but wasn’t its ultimate recommendation.
Sununu’s purported side-step of the society’s recommendation is not an indictment against it, but rather he had another accomplished person in mind for the role. The governor said that he enjoys Moran’s poetry, and even had him read a poem at his second inauguration. So why all the ruckus?
What a luxury it is to be able to put so much energy and attention to this issue. In the absence of other, more significant things for which to criticize the governor, people have seized upon his nomination of someone other than the Poetry Society’s recommendation to fill the vacuum. It certainly speaks well of the current administration’s accomplishments, which deserve much more discussion than a single nomination for poet laureate.
BILL BRYANT
Bow