In Minnesota late last month, Governor Tim Pawlenty decided not to select a state poet laureate, and in a commentary for The Minneapolis Star Tribune, James Lileks says “A wise idea, I think.” He continues, “Doesn’t mean poetry is useless or lacks intrinsic merit — but people no longer pretend to laud the poet or his craft. The Poet was once the man who wrestled with the Olympian concepts and brought them down to Earth mortal-sized morsels for the Saturday Evening Post. Poetry was the expression of truth and/or beauty professed through the rigors of language and form. When poetry meant Kipling, it had a certain valor and heft in the public mind. Now, that was a poem. By God it rhymed and you could march to it. Then came the new poets who shed the old styles as a useless encrustation of the old dead past, and they lost their claim on the popular mind. . . . But even when the concept of The Poet had respect, there were only a few who were permitted to be public poets without ridicule. Sandburg and Frost, that’s about it.”