Springfield children’s author David Harrison has earned countless honors over his lifetime, including honorary doctorates from Missouri State and Drury universities, as well as an elementary school bearing his name.
On Tuesday afternoon the Missouri Arts Council announced that Gov. Mike Parson appointed Harrison Missouri’s seventh Poet Laureate, a role he expects to serve through June 30, 2025.
Harrison said he’s delighted by the news and plans to focus on fostering the love of poetry-writing among young students.
"Poetry requires that we think in pictures and images," Harrison says, "and how do we get that into words, how do we describe to the next person what we are feeling and seeing and thinking. So it’s a wonderful incubator for writers.”
Harrison says poetry helps people learn to communicate more creatively, effectively and with fewer words.
