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STEPHEN JOHN: It's All Things Considered for Minnesota Public Radio News. I'm Stephen John. St. Paul has its first poet laureate. St. Paul resident Carol Connolly's first commissioned poem will come on August 2 during Mayor Chris Coleman's budget address.

Mrs. Connolly is a published poet and columnist. She has been active in local and state politics for years, and served formerly as Minnesota racing commissioner and head of the St. Paul Human Rights Commission. Carol Connelly joins me in the studio. Congratulations on your new position.

CAROL CONNOLLY: Thank you so much.

STEPHEN JOHN: Did you ever think you'd add this to your resume?

CAROL CONNOLLY: Absolutely never. Never, never, never. Although I feel very honored and humble and grateful.

STEPHEN JOHN: What does a poet laureate do?

CAROL CONNOLLY: That is a good question. The US poet laureate, as Donald Hall says, who is the current US poet laureate, says that it's our job to be the official lightning rod for the poetic impulse of the people.

STEPHEN JOHN: That's poetry right there, isn't it?

CAROL CONNOLLY: Yeah, all right.

STEPHEN JOHN: Now that you are St. Paul's official poet laureate, do you feel obligated to have to write poetry that is perhaps about Grand Avenue or the Capitol or a notable place landmark in St. Paul?

CAROL CONNOLLY: I think the fact that I've lived here my entire life and raised my children here sort of infuses all of my poems anyway. But I don't plan on writing any architectural poems or any poems about the Seven Hills or any of that.

STEPHEN JOHN: Now you came to writing relatively late in your life, I understand, age 40.

CAROL CONNOLLY: Age 40, seems relatively early now.

STEPHEN JOHN: Looking back. But what is it that got you to start writing poetry?

CAROL CONNOLLY: Well, I was encouraged to go into a journal keeping class. I was at home with seven children and a marriage that was falling apart. And I think one of my friends just got very tired of me complaining and sent me to this therapeutic journal keeping class. And it just opened all sorts of new worlds for me.

And then I went to the loft thinking I would take a class in fiction writing because I had these notebooks full of words, which I was sure were very beautiful. And the fiction class, which was being taught by Judy Guest, was full. And so I thought well, as long as I'm here, I'll take a class in poetry.

STEPHEN JOHN: How about reading a poem of yours that you've written, perhaps from your book, Payments Due?

CAROL CONNOLLY: I will read the first poem that I ever finished, Last Resort.

I am trapped here in a second rate body.

I, me with the proper address

and acceptable bloodlines

and the appearance of a decent bank balance.

Trapped here at the pool during the thigh show.

Sins of the flesh are punished here,

Exposed a stretched belly negates a person at this spa.

Here the only interest is in bones and sinew and teeth and tan.

No flesh need apply.

Attention over here.

I would like to say that

I am terribly sorry if I visually assaulted you.

I want to explain

I followed the rules.

It was seven pregnancies for me

And twins and 9 pound babies.

And do you know if you want to have your cake,

You must eat it.

STEPHEN JOHN: That is nice. A mother of eight?

CAROL CONNOLLY: Eight, Yes. Right. All grown up, though. Thank goodness. All self-supporting.

STEPHEN JOHN: I think parents need some kind of an outlet, and maybe poetry is something more people should think about taking up if they have-- well, eight kids for sure. But even if they have one or two.

CAROL CONNOLLY: I recommend it hardly. Here's another little poem that is sort of a very general human experience. And so I think people could write these kind of poems also. An ordinary event.

The fact that it happens to all of us

doesn't make it any easier.

I turn a corner

and suddenly,

Without warning,

I stand full before a mirror.

And there it is,

My mother's face,

staring back at me in disbelief.

The face I swore I'd never have.

Women especially seem to sob and cry and laugh when they hear that poem.

STEPHEN JOHN: Carol Connolly it's been a joy having you on our show today. And again, congratulations on being named the first ever official St. Paul poet laureate. How about taking us out with another piece of your work.

CAROL CONNOLLY: Thank you. I would love to. This poem was actually read by Oprah on her show several years ago, unfortunately, before the book club, so it didn't increase book sales any.

STEPHEN JOHN: Unfortunately.

CAROL CONNOLLY: But the genesis of the poem is you had a woman on her show who told-- who had written a book about how you can force someone to marry you. You can choose someone to marry. And then what steps you take to force that person to marry you. So Oprah closed the show with this poem.

STEPHEN JOHN: And it's called--

CAROL CONNOLLY: Romance.

In every romance

there is a time early

When I want to consume him,

Own him,

Lock him in a closet in my vicinity.

A closet with a window.

I am not a killer.

I want to put him in a box,

carry him with me

and if he without looking steps into the box,

I close the cover quickly,

Bang it shut

and hang it with a heavy padlock.

As I turn the key in the lock,

I look at him curled in the box

And think, you idiot,

What are you doing in that box?

STEPHEN JOHN: Carol Connolly, St. Paul, poet laureate. Thank you.

CAROL CONNOLLY: Thank you so much.