Lake County celebrates National Poetry Month with readings, memorial and community event at Lakeport Library

Brenda Marie Yeager, the poet laureate of Lake County, thanked the Board of Supervisors for proclaiming April as National Poetry Month and announced a public reading and open mic at the Lakeport Library this Saturday at 2 p.m.

"I am Brenda Marie Yeager. I am the poet laureate of Lake County," Yeager said, and invited community members to attend a featured reading called The Shared World and to participate in a robust open mic following the event.

Yeager introduced Georgina Marie Guardado, a former Lake County poet laureate, who read two poems for the board: "Don't Go Into the Library," by Arizona poet Alberto Rios, and a poem by Lake County poet Vicente Zeta Colosian, whose work is being displayed in poetry boxes around the county for the month of April.

Guardado noted that the Colosian poems are on public display and read a poem selected at the Board's request. She also urged attendees to support the library and community resources, saying libraries are "the book of books" and warning they can change a person who goes inside.

Guardado also made a brief appeal related to an animal in need: "Please consider adopting Wheezy. That poor girl is at risk for euthanasia," she said.

Yeager framed the month-long celebration as part of efforts to support local poets and library programming in Lake County. She said the weekend reading at Lakeport Library will feature Lake County poets reading their own work and invited residents to participate.

The meeting record shows Yeager and Guardado spoke during the agenda item labeled National Poetry Month Poem of the Week; no formal vote or ordinance was recorded on the item in the transcript.

The county-wide poetry displays, the Saturday reading at Lakeport Library and the showing of Vicente Zeta Colosian's poems aim to increase visibility for local poets and library programs through April.