As Guilford’s new (and second-ever) poet laureate, Mark McGuire-Schwartz sees exciting possibilities to open up opportunities and assist others who have a love and appreciation for the written form, or just love to write poetry. Mark is also the creator of a new form of poetry, the Seventeen.

Mark’s poetry and prose have been published in many journals, and he’s also published a book of poems written in the Seventeen style, entitled 289 (the number equals 17 squared). In addition to his career in social services with the state of Connecticut, Mark received his MFA from Southern Connecticut State University in 2014 and has taught at Housatonic Community College, among other roles.

On March 16, a Guilford Poet Laureate Ceremony held at Guilford Free Public Library helped the Town of Guilford, including First Selectman Matt Hoey and members of Guilford Poets Guild, thank outgoing poet laureate Gordy Whiteman for his many years of service, and to welcome Mark to the role.

Mark is now a member of the Council of Poets Laureate of Connecticut, a group that Whiteman helped to found with a handful of other local poet laureates at a time when very few towns had such a post. The Guilford Poets Guild was founded in the 1990s by five Guilford poets, including Whiteman, in order to publish the guild’s first anthology.

Mark is grateful to Whiteman for many reasons, including “...for doing such a great job of establishing this position, and being the real poet of the town even before that.”

Mark also thanks the Guilford Poets Guild, Hoey, and the Board of Selectmen for supporting the arts in Guilford. In March, the selectmen issued a proclamation recognizing Mark as the town’s new poet laureate.

“I’m really touched by being given this position,” Mark says.

Mark has many ideas for supporting the art of poetry in Guilford and beyond. He’s currently working on setting up a website as an online poetry center for the town. He hopes to inform the website, in part, through a survey he plans to develop.

“Guilford has a very long and strong poetry community and history of poetry, but there are also poets who are not necessarily connected with the Guilford Poets Guild or any other groups,” says Mark. “I want to do some sort of a survey for the people in town, and maybe beyond, about what poetry means to them. Do they write poetry, do they read poetry? What would they be interested in a poet laureate doing, and what might they be interested in in terms of poetry? What do they do already, and what would they like to do?”

As a virtual location attracting those interested in poetry or writing poetry, the online poetry center could uncover the next Emily Dickinson, Mark posits. The enigmatic 19th century American poet composed nearly 1,800 poems, but fewer than a dozen were published in her lifetime.

“Almost no one knew about her while she was alive,” says Mark. “We may have poets in town who are Emily Dickinsons. Maybe not as great, or maybe as great — who knows?”

Mark’s own poetic pursuits include writing in his poetic form, the Seventeen. The form involves poems written in 17 sections.

“This is something I’ve been doing for the last 15 years,” says Mark. “There are a lot of poems in the world that have different sections, and I’ve always been interested in that. Walt Whitman’s ‘Song of Myself’ has many sections. Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ has several sections.”

With 17 sections, “...you have a lot of opportunity to do things that are contrasting, or maybe even don’t seem to fit together; but maybe they do, in some way,” says Mark. “I have things that I do in my Seventeens that often have an element of humor or odd juxtapositions of different ideas, so my Seventeens have a certain style. And some others have written Seventeens, oddly enough.”

Mark found the pattern while he was simply writing poetry rather than attempting to design a form.

“I did it once, and that first poem just struck me. And then, I seemed to fall into that pattern, and it kept calling me back. Once I had gone in there, it seemed like the right length for me,” says Mark. “It seemed long enough so you could approach a subject from many different angles or in some depth, or you could interweave two related themes, but it wasn’t so long that it was an epic poem. It’s not Homer!”

Imagination and poetry have been a part of Mark’s life for about as long as he can recall.

“I remember writing poems in kindergarten,” Mark says. “I remember, in third grade, with several friends, we had several different series of stories in which we each took the character of a dinosaur or a wild animal. There was one fashioned after Dr. Seuss, which was a rhymed poem about a strange creature we made up.”

By the time he was in high school, Mark knew he wanted to be a writer.

“I was one of the editors of the school literary magazine, and I wrote poems for that. In college, I actually earned a BA in creative writing, which is a rather unusual degree, but at Goddard College, you were free to do a lot with creating your program. So I was writing throughout my college career and then beyond.”

The New Jersey native kept writing even as he entered a career in public service.

“I got married fairly early, and we had a child fairly early, and at that point, the money from poetry wasn’t pouring in,” says Mark. “So poetry got put aside. But, it kept coming back.”

The majority of Mark’s public service career was as a member of the State of Connecticut’s Department of Social Services, including eight years with its Programs and Policy Unit, which involved writing.

“The primary job of that unit is to write policy and to write other things that go with policy,” says Mark. “We had to write things in all different styles. At first, I was a writer in that group, and later, they created a different position, which was as an assistant chief of program policy. I became an editor for a staff of people who were writing policy. So I got to do a lot of writing and editing in that career, which was very fortunate.”

Mark’s first chapbook was published in 2009. Prior to the pandemic, to help promote other poets’ writing, Mark helped organize two different poetry reading series in New Haven, which involved bringing in featured readers, having open mics, and giving people a chance to express themselves. His involvement with the New Haven-based Pi Poetry group also involves Pi’s online ‘zine, Circumference, for which Mark serves as co-editor. Editor’s notes from Mark and some of his poems can be found in each issue. Learn more at poetryatpi.wordpress.com

Mark and his wife, Mary Ellen, love residing in Guilford. He’s honored to be Guilford’s new Poet Laureate, and humbled to be following Whiteman in the role. Whiteman was first appointed to the position about 10 years ago.

“Gordy really was such a natural for the position because he’s lived in Guilford all his life. He’s written about Guilford for a long time, and a lot of his poems are set in Guilford. He really fit with what a town poet laureate could be,” says Mark.

As Guilford’s new poet laureate, “...the pressure’s on! I want to do good things in poetry with the town,” says Mark. “There are all sorts of poets, and I think it should be my job to help those people, and to also help anyone who’s interested in poetry. I don’t think everyone should have to read poetry or write poetry, but I feel that, for anyone who wants to, it’s my job to help them.”

Interested community members are encouraged to reach out to Guilford Poet Laureate Mark McGuire-Schwartz by sending an email to mcguireschwartz@gmail.com