Peterson Poetry Exciting Youth
By Chris Seymour | Correspondent at February 18, 2024 | 6:15 pm | Print
New Britain Poet Laureate Michael Peterson, 35, first discovered the power of poetry when he was a youngster in school.
“I have been writing since high school, maybe college,” recalled Peterson, the Dean of Students at New Britain High School who is also a 1998 NBHS grad.
“And in college I went through the bitter break up blues, and at that point, I had to let out my anger, sadness and frustration via the pen,” said Peterson, who went to the University of Rhode Island, where he double majored in elementary education and psychology.
“And I went to an open mic there and saw people reading, and said ‘wow, I can do this,’” he recalled. “So I read a poem, people liked it; I went back, read another poem, people liked that one. I was like, ‘wait a minute, they kind of like this stuff and I like writing’ so I started something a little more happy,” he added with a laugh.
In the years since, Peterson has become a published poet who has won a number of competitions. His prowess for poetry has also taken him around the world (he has performed in Finland, London, Germany and across the US) and he has gotten kids excited about the craft.
However, Peterson stresses he doesn’t necessarily want to make every child a poet; rather, he wants to help them find their “outlet” for negative emotions like stress and anger.
“It’s not necessarily encouraging kids to become poets but it is just challenging them to find their outlet—whatever it is that is their poem in terms of how they release their stress, how they get rid of tension and anger,” he explained. “Some people box, some people dance; poetry is my outlet.”
As the city’s Poet Laureate, Peterson’s duties include promoting awareness of poetry in New Britain by being present at events in and around the city as an official representative of the city.
Appointed the Hardware City’s first Poet Laureate last October, Peterson has been off to a great start with those duties. “I have had a couple of after school programs with the kids; they have come in and we have done some writing workshops,” he said. “And I have brought 5 nationally known ranked poets here to the city. And I have had two events—one on Trinity on Main and one at the VFW.”
Peterson’s signature form of poetry is spoken word, which he feels is much more entertaining than traditional poetry. “I don’t mean to offend anyone, but it is a lot more entertaining than traditional script poetry,” he said.
“There is an element of entertainment to it that it really engages people and when the content is interesting content, along with the entertainment performance component, it really enlightens the poetry experience,” he observed.
Though he has been published in several different publications, Peterson has yet to come out with his own book of poetry, but “several are in the works,” he said.
He also has a number of other initiatives that are taking off. “I am developing a writing workshop with the kids and we are going to put together a youth poetry slam for the high school first and I am hoping we can get it done right around graduation time this year, right before school ends,” he explained.
“And then bring it back into next year and get the middle schools involved,” he added. “I want the high school to facilitate with middle school kids and so on and so forth, all the way down the chain.”
This way, the older kids serve as role models and mentors for the younger kids “all through poetry,” said Peterson, who is father of two young children: 4-year-old Mia and 1-year-old Major.
Mia “has a thing for public speaking,” according to her dad, meaning she could follow in her dad’s footsteps one day. “I coach basketball at the high school and when we have our basketball banquet, she goes behind the podium and says, ‘I am like you, daddy,”‘ said Peterson.
For more information on Peterson and his poetry, please visit chiefthepoet.com.
