Discover Delmarva Arts: Salisbury’s Poet Laureate Nancy Mitchell

SALISBURY, Md. — Named the Poet Laureate of Salisbury in 2019, Nancy Mitchell has spent years turning poetry into a bridge between art and the community. An award-winning poet and longtime educator, Mitchell is using her voice to uplift, inspire, and leave a lasting impact on the community she calls home. As the first Poet Laureate of Salisbury, Mitchell had to blaze the trail — and she started off strong by nailing down what she felt the city needed most.

“I narrowed my focus to doing community work and going into the community, trying to raise the awareness of poetry. I was really interested in building the heart of the city because without the heart, the rest of the city can’t live.”

Since then, she’s brought that mission to life: teaching classes, holding workshops, and helping others discover the poet within themselves. “I have the desire to connect people with the poet within because I do believe it; I believe everyone is a poet. . . Sufi poet Rumi says, ‘Beyond all ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.’ And I was hoping to create that field.”

She says that poetry is the perfect medium to bring people together — and a space where they can process and navigate life’s strongest emotions. “I just love to see people come alive and understand how poetry does the job of attempting to express the inexpressible.”

Nancy showed me firsthand how she helps others turn emotions and visions into poetry. “You took that abstraction, happiness, and you gave us an image. You grounded it, you tethered that abstraction to the concrete.”

While reading some of her work, it becomes clear how she weaves emotion, imagery, and lived experiences into poems that resonate with the community.