In June 2019, Borough President Oddo formally created the position of Poet Laureate for Staten Island.
The appointment of the Staten Island Poet Laureate is an unpaid, volunteer position, appointed for a 4-year term by the Borough President, based on the recommendation of a selection committee. The Poet Laureate will be charged with performing responsibilities related to community outreach and projects that promote poetry and/or literacy on the Island.
The appointment of the Staten Island Poet Laureate is an unpaid, volunteer position, appointed for a 4-year term by the Borough President, based on the recommendation of a selection committee. The Poet Laureate will be charged with performing responsibilities related to community outreach and projects that promote poetry and/or literacy on the Island.
About Dr. Rivas
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A native Staten Islander, Marguerite Maria Rivas is a graduate of Tottenville High School and holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from the College of Staten Island. She received a Doctor of Arts and Letters degree, specializing in poetry, in 2001 from Drew University. She is an Associate Professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College.
As the sole supporter of her children, Dr. Rivas often worked three jobs while earning her doctorate. In between working and studying, she wrote poetry, often at night while her children were sleeping. Dr. Rivas’ poetry, both lyric and long-form, is largely based on the culture, history and natural environment of Staten Island. Her poetry has been widely published in journals, anthologies and in a best-selling college textbook. She is also the author of two full-length collections of poems. In her book, “Tell No One: Poems of Witness,” her poems reflect the kinship and the resiliency of Staten Islanders in the aftermath of Sept. 11. A poem from this collection, “Witness,” is included in the National September 11th Museum’s online collection, along with two others. She has received numerous grants and awards for her poetry, including the National Council of Teachers of English/Two-Year College Association National Poetry Month Award for her poem “Witness.” She is also the recipient of the Staten Island Arts Excellence in Literature Award, The Marg Chandler Memorial Award from A Room of Her Own Foundation, and The Irene C. Fromer Award from Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden. |
“Staten Island has always been my home, my subject, and my inspiration,” said Dr. Rivas. “Throughout my adult life, it has been my privilege to have taught poetry in the community, in grammar schools, and in colleges. Poetry brings people joy, an understanding of themselves, and an awareness of their connectedness to their communities and the world around them. It is a living, breathing expression of shared experiences.
To contact the Poet Laureate, email her at poetlaureatestatenisland@gmail.com
Selected Work
Workday SonnetA lumbering bus makes its way around
the curve, past Borough Hall, then up Bay Street. Tired Islanders nod off, keep heads down bent over cellphones, send a text or Tweet-- are mostly happy to be going home. Commuting life is complicated: leave in the dark; return just in time to roam through trails at Clove Lakes Park; watch the sunset. Unburdened, you’re alone except for your dog who also understands the long workday takes you far away, stifles, is a slog. But in these woods, you’re free and far away from the city’s loud bustle and ringing. Calmer now, leave to spring peepers singing. |
SEA DRIFT Page Avenue Beach, Staten Island
We are broken yet beautiful things, like cracked old bottles, frosty and blue, sculptural oyster shells, a hundred years old, or fragments of terra cotta, remnants of gone glory tossed upon Tottenville’s shores. Maybe someday a beachcomber with an eye for damaged beauty will pick us up, arrange us just so on a weather-worn plank, and regard us under a china-blue sky. Perhaps he’ll bring us home to his faithful wife who loves treasure made smooth by the churning of stormy seas and made beautiful by the devotion of a loyal heart. |
