The Mississippi Poetry Society, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, announced recently-retired Starkville Christian School English and Spanish teacher John Michael Shelton as the Mississippi Poetry Society’s Poet of the Year.
The Mississippi Poetry Society is a statewide organization founded at Belhaven College in the 1930s.
The group divides Mississippi into three regions; north, central and south. Each year, a poet from each region is nominated to be Mississippi’s Poet of the Year.
The nominated poets then submit 25 to 30 poems to be judged. After the winner is chosen, the Mississippi Poetry Society helps pay for the publication of a book of original pieces by the winner.
Jeanne Kelly, a judge for this year’s contest, said she hopes John Michael Shelton’s win will make others interested in the art of poetry.
“Even people who don’t like poetry will read the work of someone they know, thereby developing an appreciation for the art,” Kelly said.
Shelton began writing poetry 34 years ago, and has written just over 5,000 poems.
“When my son was 8 months old, I became a single parent and wrote my first poem on a stormy night about him,” Shelton said. “Seven years later, I had written a few hundred.”
Shelton said although he enjoyed writing the poetry, he would have never made his poems public without the encouragement of his mother.
“On a visit to my mother’s house one Sunday, she saw me writing and said, ‘if you’re not going to do anything with those things, stop doing them,’” Shelton said. “So, I gathered some together and took them to the MSU English department.”
Shelton was awarded the Mississippi State University’s Eugene Butler Scholarship for Creative Writing, based on the poems he submitted to the English department. Once he was awarded the Butler Scholarship, Shelton enrolled at MSU full time.
“I worked full time in campus mail, went to MSU full time, along with being a single parent,” Shelton said. “After graduating, I taught high school English and Spanish for twenty years.”
Shelton is now a full time writer and a member of five different poetry groups.
Shelton said he pursued poetry because he finds it to be cathartic.
“You can get up in the morning and sit down and write,” Shelton said. “You don’t have to finish anything, but your day just gets better.”
Shelton said he hopes his poems can help those going through trials and tribulations, and hopes the notoriety he gains from the award will expose more people to the healing nature of poetry.
“It’s an opportunity to keep promises I’ve made and further people’s love of and need for poetry,” Shelton said.
Right now, Shelton is in the process of selecting which poems to publish, as well as coauthoring two other books on poems—one with his daughter, and one with Tracy Miller of Starkville and teacher at Noxubee High School.
Janice Canerdy, head of the North Mississippi branch of the Mississippi Poetry Society, said she believes Shelton’s success will inspire other artist to continue pursuing their dreams.
“Michael (Shelton) is an inspiration to other poets to keep poetry alive,” Canerdy said.