Poet laureate Mark Gibbons is a lifelong resident of the state who began writing poetry in high school, married young, and has worked a variety of jobs to remain in Montana. His presentations will explore the power of poetry, how it reveals through personal experience and human emotion what it’s like to be a human being, and how it helps us recognize that all of us have more in common than we think. By sharing his and others’ poems, he will discuss his love of poetry, and his belief that it not only matters but is an essential tool for developing empathy and understanding. Poetry is social glue. Every person is a poet whether they know it or not. Everyone thinks, imagines, feels, dreams. Poetry shows us that on paper and in song.