Vermilion names poet laureate

VERMILION — There is a push to bring art more into the mainstream in Vermilion, and its latest initiative comes with a title: poet laureate. The Vermilion Poetry Society asked the city to consider creating such a position and came with their candidate in mind: Joette McDonald, a retired teacher and author. On July 8, Mayor Jim Forthofer recommended McDonald be named the city's first poet laureate and City Council approved her appointment unanimously. "When they first came to me with the proposal, I thought 'You're right,'" Forthofer said. "We are so obsessed with the mechanics of daily life — getting ordinances here, getting roads done, etc. — that we forget the finer parts of elevating the spirits of people in town. I thought it was a good idea." Jim Chapple said the poetry group formed recently to support literacy of all forms, but it especially wanted to see McDonald's talents honored. "First of all, she's so highly respected in the Vermilion community. I can't tell you how many times I've heard, 'Joette was my fourth-grade teacher, she was the best teacher I ever had.' She's made an impact on so many lives with her teaching and love of poetry," said Chapple, the president of the Harbourtown Fine Arts Center. "She's committed her whole life to young people and education and literacy and poetry. She was a unanimous selection not only to our committee but also City Council, for our first poet laureate." "I feel very humbled," said McDonald, 88. "I love Vermilion. I love the kids. It's an honor." McDonald taught for nearly 30 years, almost all of it in fourth grade. She has served as a past president of the Friends of Ritter Public Library and continues helping out with the group, and stays active in the community with her husband of 67 years, Joe. They have four children, seven grandchildren and many great-grandchildren. "Poetry has been a part of my existence since day one," she said. "I started writing before I could hold a pencil." She grew up in western Kentucky, in a small town where she started writing for the local weekly newspapers at age 11. "I wrote a weekly column, the kind where you told what all the neighbors were doing, who had a baby and all that stuff, and there was always a poem I wrote attached to the bottom of it," she said. She inherited the column from her mother, who wrote it until turning it over to McDonald. She worked at the paper all through high school, eventually writing three weekly columns for a few weekly papers. As a girl, McDonald managed to buy a $30 portable typewriter for herself from Sears and Roebuck from her wages, earning a nickel per inch of copy, a measuring standard in newspaper space. She earned about $5 a week, and made payments. She graduated and left for college to study journalism. One day the dean of students called her out into the hall to tell her about an open teaching position he knew about, a common problem in the teaching shortages following World War II. She was 19. "So I took it and instead of becoming a journalist and full-time writer, I became a teacher," she said. She eventually earned her degree from Kent State University and a master's degree from Ashland, and taught at South Street School and Vermilion Intermediate before retiring in 1996. The writing, however, never left her. She continued to write poems, eventually publishing three volumes: "Waiting for the bus at Protemus" in 2005; "It Seems Like Happiness Is Just a Thing Called Joe," a book of poems she wrote in honor of her husband for their 50th wedding anniversary in 2007; and "Seasons of the Soul," poems reflecting on her faith, in 2013. She also wrote a book about writing poetry, "I Feel Like a Poem Coming On — Now What" in 2007, and two books for young readers about Vermilion: "The Lighthouse Mystery" and "The Haunted Hall," about Vermilion's Old Town Hall, which now houses the Harbourtown center. Her work has garnered numerous awards, been read on the radio and published in several periodicals and anthologies. "I don't write as much as I used to. I've always said that writing poetry is like laying eggs. All of a sudden it's there and I write the whole thing down," she said. It's still uncertain what the duties of the poet laureate might be — reading poems or composing them for special city occasions seems to be the idea so far, everyone agrees — but McDonald is musing she may write a poem to celebrate the occasion of the reception in her honor. The Vermilion Poetry Society is hosting the event from 7 to 9 p.m. Aug. 8 at Harbourtown Fine Arts Center, 736 Main St. To attend, notify Chapple at chappjw@aol.com or (440) 225-1547. "I've had what I think is a wonderful life," she said. "I'm very honored." "I don't know many of my poems by heart, but I know this one. I probably wrote it when I was 10 or 11." Contact Rini Jeffers by email at rinijeffers@gmail.com.