By Richard Tedesco
Standing amid the shade trees at Bryant's former home, Wheat accepted the honor before a crowd of more than 100 supporters. Replacing his signature broad-brimmed straw hat with a makeshift sprig of laurels, Wheat exhorted those present to turn Nassau County into a classroom for poetry.
"Poetry history is being made today," Wheat told the crowd. "Instead of the government appointing a poet laureate, we are appointing a poet laureate."
And he said that the Nassau County legislature had
"disqualified itself from the dignity and privilege of declaring a poet laureate" when it voted against installing Wheat in the largely honorific position earlier this month.
Wheat drew heat from legislators for his volume of anti-war verse, "Iraq and Other Killing Fields: Poetry for Peace," as they rejected his nomination for the post by a 6-1 vote on June 4.
The 80-year-old poet has since said that the move smacked of "McCarthyism" because he was denied the honor for the opinions he expressed in the volume of verse published in 2004.
Susan Blake, who oversees the Peacesmiths poetry readings in Amityville, said, "It is the duty of people living in a democracy to express themselves with intentionality at their own personal risk. Today, we celebrate Max, that his voice may be heard. We want to declare him the people's poet laureate."
Legislator Wayne Wink (D-Roslyn), who cast the lone vote in support of Wheat as county poet laureate, said the debate did serve to engage the seven legislators considering the nomination in an unprecedented debate about poetry. "I don't remember two hours of debate in my freshman English class," he quipped.
Wheat accepted the poet's laurel wreath with both hands at Cedarmere, speaking with obvious emotion about the craft he's spent a lifetime developing. "Don't let the meaning of the poem stop you from enjoying the language," he told his audience. "That's what poetry is: the pleasure of language."
He made it clear that he intended to be an activist poet laureate, notwithstanding the unofficial status. "I call for a renaissance of children's and young people's poetry," he said, pledging to help demonstrate that even younger writers can produce poetry adults could appreciate.
He read samples of verse from three grade-school poets present for the event, and promised to push for young writers to be included in local poetry readings throughout the county.
Vietnam veteran and poet Thomas Brinson embraced Wheat after the ceremony and thanked him for his work. "Politics should be taken out of this completely," Brinson said of the poet laureate furor.
Brinson, who works as a therapist with veterans in treatment of post-traumatic stress syndrome, said the frank, anti-war words of writers like Wheat are a welcome tonic to those returning from the current Iraq war. "I work with a lot of Iraq vets who feel a lot of support from people writing the truth."
Asked whether he felt vindicated at being honored by members of the Long Island poetry community, Wheat simply said he valued the support. "I don't think I need to be vindicated. I think what I said was right about a war that's taking our people in double-digit numbers. I think people should speak out. And it makes it easier for people to do it."
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