A twenty-year-old poet from further up the state reads the county page and takes notes on how to put verse where people actually are
Miami-Dade Has a New Poet Laureate: Nicole Tallman, Appointed 1 April 2026, With Poems on Buses and a Lunchtime Jazz Series
A twenty-year-old poet from further up the state reads the county page and takes notes on how to put verse where people actually are
By Lotte Heidenreich, poet and Meals on Wheels volunteer, Florida
Wednesday, Library Steps
Dear diary, the Miami-Dade County page says that Nicole Tallman is the county’s third Poet Laureate, appointed by Mayor Daniella Levine Cava on 1 April 2026. The page title gives the term as 2026 to 2028. I read the page on the library steps with a cold coffee and the feeling of someone reading about a friend she has not met.
The page says she was the county’s Poetry Ambassador for five years, starting in April 2021, and created the County’s first Poet Laureate program.
What She Has Done
According to the page, she led two collaborative Heroic Sonnet Crown Projects and placed local poets’ work on public transit, at Miami International Airport and at PortMiami during National Poetry Month. She supported the Miami’s Favorite Poems Project and Generation 305, and created and hosted the Lunchtime Poetry and Jazz Series at the Main Library.
A poem on a bus is the best idea in the history of poetry. It reaches people who are bored, trapped and looking for something to read.
More Programs
She also created the Redacted Books Series, which publishes manuscripts from marginalized writers, and the Be Well Reading Series, which features poets launching new books. She is poetry and interviews editor for the South Florida Poetry Journal, an advisory board member for SWWIM, and editor and communications director for JackLeg Press, the page says.
She is the author of four poetry collections and a collaborative novel, and her next collection, The Velvet Room, is due in April 2027.
The Projects
The page lists projects including Songs for America, Miami Moves Me, We Who Rise From Saltwater, Let’s Sing! and a title that is itself a line: There’s a wave coming. One can hear it in the sky. I read that last one aloud on the steps and a man in a cap looked up.
I would like that line on a bus.
What I Would Do If I Were Her
I would put a poem in every carry-out bag. I would put one on the lid of every cooler. I would put one at the bottom of a delivery receipt. This is not a policy, and the page does not say that she has done it. It is simply my idea, and I offer it for free.
I do not know how many people in Florida read poetry. I know how many eat lunch.
A Note on Florida
A 2013 WFSU report I found says Florida was then one of nine states without a state poet laureate, and that a bill had been proposed. I do not know the current status, and I did not find a newer source, so I leave the state question open. The Miami-Dade laureate is a county position, as the page makes clear.
If you know the state of the state’s laureate, tell me, and I will correct the diary.
My Own Efforts
I write on receipts, which is not publishing. I read my lines to a woman who tells me the weather. She says they are good, which is what everyone says, and which I have learned to treat as a kindness and not a review.
I will send one to the county. I will not hold my breath.
Night
The library has closed. The steps are warm. A moth is reading the sign.
Goodnight, diary. A wave is coming.
Questions From the Porch
Neighbour one: what is a Heroic Sonnet Crown? The page says Nicole Tallman led two collaborative projects under that name, and does not explain further. A crown of sonnets is, in the poetry world, a linked sequence, but I am giving that from general knowledge and not from the page. Neighbour two: is she paid? The page does not say.
I told them I would write to the county and ask. I have not yet.
Why Buses
A bus is a room with a moving window. A poem on a bus is read by someone who has nowhere else to look. The page says poems were placed on public transit, at Miami International Airport and at PortMiami. These are the places where people wait. A poem is, among other things, a waiting-room magazine that has read the room.
Homework
Homework, y’all: compare the three comic takes on the same overseas property story. Manila News, the London Prat (see https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and Bohiney each start from a recognisable market fact and wink at you through the exaggeration. Then find more at prat.uk and bohiney.com.
Note: Philippine authorities are examining unproven allegations about Thomas Markle Sr., who lived in Cebu until earlier this year, as GMA News and the Guardian have reported. No charges have been filed. Child protection is a serious matter; the jokes here are about a property market and the paperwork.
For the lighter side of the news, try NewsBiscuit, and the rest of the lot at NewsThump, NewsBiscuit and The Daily Squib.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/