Lives in the arts: Napa's poet laureate Gary Silva

By LOUISA HUFSTADER
Register Correspondent

As we’re often told, Robert Louis Stevenson praised Napa Valley wines as “bottled poetry.” Napa County poet laureate Gary Silva turns the phrase around:

“Poetry is bigger than we think,” he told the Napa County Board of Supervisors last month. “Poetry is Mozart, Clara Schumann; poetry is a cabernet, a chardonnay, a petite sirah.”

But poetry is sadly lacking among Napa’s public places, Silva said in an interview this month. “Do you see a poem anywhere in this building?” he asked, gesturing around the bustling Oxbow Public Market on a Saturday afternoon.

Silva wants to bring the art of verse out of the shadows. Although his formal duties are few — he composes and reads “occasional” poems for county events — Silva intends to be an activist laureate during his two-year term.

Working from a 15-point “short list” of ideas for making poetry a more vital part of Napa Valley life, Silva is at work on a monthly Register column, debuting soon, that will profile Napa County poets and their work.

“My primary goal is to get the local poets who are hiding in the woodwork to come out and to be present in the community, and make poetry so that it’s visible in the community,” he said. “It’s not about being the poet laureate; it’s about all the poets, including the poet laureate.”

Silva, who recently retired after nearly 20 years teaching English, Shakespeare and creative writing at Napa Valley College, was selected for his honorary position by a countywide panel of poets and literature professionals including Dorothy Lee Hansen, the county’s first poet laureate, who was appointed in 2002.

Since accepting his laurels from the board of supervisors in May, Silva has been busy with public readings, interviews and meetings to develop poetry projects.

He’s already increased the presence of poetry in government meetings: Silva’s appearance at the July 22 supervisors’ meeting marked the second time this year that the board was treated to a reading, following a farewell performance by Hansen in May during which she reminded her listeners that “poets are useful and necessary in society.”

Silva has also been talking with members of the Napa County Arts and Culture Commission about the possibilities of a poetry contest for high-school seniors and a “Read Your Favorite Poem Picnic” in Napa’s Veterans Memorial Park this fall.

Other ideas on his “short list” of goals include a monthly TV or radio show for local poets, a poets’ newsletter and a series of “broadsides,” or poster-sized poems, for public display.

Over the course of his term, Silva hopes to develop a poetry festival, similar to Sonoma’s, that will include both nationally known writers and open microphones for up-and-coming poets. He’s even got his eye on the annual fairs in Napa and Calistoga, as potential venues for open-air poetry events.

Silva himself has been writing poetry for more than 40 years, since discovering the music of Shakespeare in a high-school class. At Cal State Fresno, a stroke of luck landed him in a poetry-writing class taught by Philip Levine, now a towering figure in American literature, whose latest of many awards was the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1995.

“He was so powerful and so challenging,” Silva recalled. “He said, ‘If you can write one good poem the whole year, you’re doing well as a young poet.’”

Silva struggled for at least a year to produce a poem that won Levine’s approval — and then he kept on writing. Dozens of small magazines have published scores of his poems, which range from meditations on local landscapes to his “Voices” series written from different characters’ points of view.

A former classical guitarist who is married to singer Eve-Anne Wilkes, the chair of the fine and performing arts division at Napa Valley College, Silva says he hasn’t written lyrics for songs. He would like to give it a try, but his main objective now is to encourage the appreciation of poetry and poets in Napa County.

“Poetry is for kids and for grownups. It’s Dr. Seuss and Emily Dickinson, or Walt Whitman,” he told the supervisors last month.

“Sometimes it rhymes and sometimes it doesn’t; sometimes it tells a story, sometimes it paints a picture, sometimes it sings or says nothing and dances silently across the mountains of our minds.”

For more about Napa County poet laureate Gary Silva and to check a countywide calendar of arts events, visit the Arts Council Napa Valley Web site at www.artscouncilna pavalley.org.

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