Outside with Derek Sheffield Outside with Derek Sheffield Outside with Derek Sheffield

Derek Sheffield, ’90, ’99, a poet and English teacher, was appointed Washington State’s Poet Laureate in April by Governor Bob Ferguson. A passionate naturalist known for co-editing the best-selling “Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry” with Elizabeth Bradfield, ’94, and CMarie Fuhrman, Sheffield is “always packing” binoculars and hand lens and birds by ear—often in the woods near his home in Leavenworth. He has butterflied alongside Robert Michael Pyle, ’69, ’73, the lepidopterist, and once exchanged letters with Pulitzer-winning biologist E.O. Wilson.

Derek Sheffield and his daughter Kelsea pose with a giant tree near Leavenworth. Photo by Heather Murphy.

Over the next two years, Sheffield will travel the state to visit schools, land trusts, prisons, senior centers, churches, writing groups, veterans’ organizations and arts festivals. Like former laureate Elizabeth Austen, he plans to organize events that combine hiking and writing. But one of his primary goals is to focus on youth and mental wellness.

“I work with young people, and I want to use poetry as a vehicle for mental health,” he says. “When I considered applying for this role, I asked myself, ‘How can I be of service? What do we need?’ Since I’m a father of two daughters and a teacher in the wake of the COVID pandemic and in the reality of social media, I very quickly arrived at mental health.” Sheffield also hopes to create a book that explores the intersection of poetry and mental wellness during his tenure.

As a UW student, Sheffield studied with celebrated faculty Linda Bierds, David Wagoner, Colleen McElroy, Charles Johnson, Heather McHugh and Rick Kenney. But his first poetry mentor, Professor Nelson Bentley, was a lasting influence. Sheffield says his poetry has always been shaped by place—the same woods, rains and tides that inspired Cascadian luminaries Bentley, Theodore Roethke, and Wagoner.

“Poetry is unlike anything else, and it will always, always matter,” he says. “Nelson Bentley, the first de facto poet laureate of the Evergreen State, said it best: ‘Poetry is the distilled essence of everything.’”

He finds it both grounding and inspiring. “Like love and God, poetry is different things to different people,” says Sheffield. “Almost anything you say about love and poetry can be true…as for me, poetry constantly wakes me to the marvel of being alive and in relationship to all around me. Like deep breathing, meditation, and prayer, it centers me. It grounds me in my body. In my experience, poetry is the one place where we consistently address the things that matter most in this life.”

The Washington State Poet Laureate, selected from a panel of nominees, serves a two-year term. Sheffield will hold the role through 2027. The program is sponsored by Humanities Washington and ArtsWA.

“Sometimes I Risk” by Derek Sheffield

our lives, driving her             to school, tilting
the mirror                                till the road
behind gives way                   to the one
in her face                                till I nearly
steer by the reflection            of her
reflection:                                chewing mouth,
eyes that flick                         from thing
to each (through her)            momentous
thing. “What house               is that?” as we pass
a winery, eyebrows               leaping, dimples
dimpling. My see-                 through highway,
revealing at once                   what passes without
passes within,                        a secret
I must keep, for if                  she sees
me seeing me                         in her, my eyes
and dimples,                          then we
are lost in her                         self-consciousness.
I must be                                 an afterthought
to sip at the lip                       of her streaming
immediacy, for                       my eyes
to oscillate                               between the broken
yellow line                              and gaps
in her bangs and teeth,         road ahead
and reckless glass                  aimed back
at what                                    will go on

Listen to Sheffield read this poem: