The Port Townsend Arts Commission wants to set up a poet laureate program.

The idea has been under consideration since March, when the notion was added to the advisory body’s work plan for 2021.

Committee members talked about the creation of a poet laureate program in depth at their May meeting and unanimously supported the idea.

Early plans include allowing applicants from outside Port Townsend apply to be a poet laureate as part of the program, as well as having an outside panel review applications.

There’s also been talk about providing a $1,000 stipend for a one-year term as laureate.

Arts Commissioner Nhatt Nichols has been working on the poet laureate proposal, and board members contacted by The Leader declined to talk about the proposed program until it’s further along in development.

Arts Commissioner Nan Toby Tyrrell, however, gave her thoughts about the potential idea of appointing a community poet laureate.

“The person who will be chosen must know how to read poems with his or her voice that holds passion and conviction,” she wrote in an email to The Leader.

“The poet needs to express to a wide audience of diverse cultural differences how poems bring us together and in a way transform us ... realizing the power of words, like good music the poet shares his or her influences of other poets who have given her or him inspiration. It’s a sacred honor, for in some ways someone said a poet is an essential worker,” Tyrrell added.