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Lacey poet laureate outlines April Poetry Month events, school workshops and August reading plans
Summary
Cynthia Pratt, Lacey’s first poet laureate and a former deputy mayor, told the council she has led readings, taught a middle-school workshop and is planning an August community reading with visiting poet laureates.
Cynthia Pratt, Lacey’s first poet laureate and a former deputy mayor, told the City Council during a public recognitions segment that she has presented poetry readings, led a middle-school workshop and is coordinating community readings for April Poetry Month and beyond.
Pratt said she has been invited to give poems at a number of organizational meetings, delivered two "fairly significant" readings including one in Tacoma representing Lacey, and taught a workshop at Thurgood Marshall Middle School where she assigned students exercises on nature and eco-poetry. "I was excited about it," Pratt said of the school visit.
Pratt said she is working with the Olympia Poetry Network to host an expanded reading in August at Panorama’s large theater. She said the event would bring Rena Priest, identified in the meeting as the state poet laureate, and other regional poets to read for residents and the broader community. "Start here with your city, Lacey, a place you love," Pratt read from a commemorative poem she is writing about the city’s parks and public spaces.
Her poem name‑checked local trails and parks — including the Karen Fraser Woodland Trail, the Chehalis Western corridor and William Ives Trail — and referenced neighborhood landmarks, veterans services and businesses as part of a wider effort to celebrate place and civic life. Pratt also said she has proposed a commemorative poem about Lacey’s parks.
Pratt described the school workshop as co‑taught and spanning three classes, with a language‑arts teacher and a partner from what she called a "citizen scientist institute." She summarized the session as focused on nature poetry and eco‑poetry and said it "went over pretty well." Pratt also told the council she has had requests from organizations to open meetings with a poem.
The presentation was informational; no council action or vote was taken. Pratt closed by thanking the council and reading portions of the poem she said celebrates neighbors, public servants and community life in Lacey. "We are not an old city, but a proud city," she said. "A city that grows by providing hope to those that need hope or services."
