Utah's Brewer is a true bard

The title "Utah poet laureate" sounds lofty — like a lord surveying his domain. And in some states that's what the post entails.

But not in Utah.

Utah's laureate is more like a foreman on a construction crew. The work is "hands on" and entails teaching, entertaining and lots of travel.

Utahns can thank the state's departing laureate, David Lee, for such a down-to-earth legacy.

The state's new laureate, Kenneth Brewer of Logan, will bring a similar "no nonsense" style to the post. He is already planning forays into the provinces to film the state's many poets at work.

A retired professor of English at Utah State University, Brewer built his writing reputation on readable, tightly wrought verse. His poem "The Flood" is a must at every reading his gives. The only thing more charming than the poem is Brewer's reading of it.

He is a talented teacher, having been named "Mentor of the Year" at USU.

He is a complicated-simple soul, a man whose poems sound like prose and whose prose feels poetic.

He is an avid duck hunter who cooks his game up in delightful, gourmet dishes.

He's a product of the academy but also of the Indiana prairies.

He's a former baseball catcher who laughs about being "a man with a woman inside of him."

Such dizzying contradictions, in fact, are what make him a first-rate choice as Utah's poet. The role of laureate is to be the "people's bard," to sing the common songs of love and longing, birth and death, clarity and confusion. And in his 61 years, Brewer has shown an amazing range — in life and literature. The poems in "To Remember What Is Lost" and his other collections have sung the songs of humanity.

Now he'll be singing them as a representative of the state.

He'll get no money.

He'll work too hard.

At times he'll wonder why he took the post.

But then he'll see something ignite in the eyes of a listener or a student and he'll know.

Poet James Dickey, another "man's man with a heart," was once asked how he viewed himself. He thought, then said, "As a schoolteacher."

Ken Brewer is a schoolteacher.

He is also the perfect choice to represent Utah in the world of verse.