Saskatchewan's newest poet laureate would have become a scientist, had it not been for a university professor who inspired a love of the written word. "I had poor English teachers in high school," Don Kerr says. "A few years later, I was a completely different person. Science was no longer where my imagination lay."

Kerr says he wrote bad poetry for a decade before he found his own voice. "I wrote many romantic poems that were not in my voice that didn't work. I realized that I had to have a sense of humour about myself."

When he started writing, there were no writers' groups in the province, and the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild had yet to be established. "There are so many writers here now. They're just exploding - and they're fantastic!" he says.

Kerr, who served on the Saskatchewan Arts Board in the 1990s, became Poet Laureate of Saskatchewan in January 2011. He has since done readings at Government House, one of which had 300 people in attendance. "They were lined up outside like they were going to a hockey game!"

The public has responded positively to Kerr's work. "One quality I have is that I believe in staying within the time limit. The other quality I have is a sense of humour in my poetry. People like that," he says.

Kerr follows in the footsteps of poet laureates Glen Sorestad, Louise Halfe, and Robert Currie. "They were all great ambassadors for poetry in the province," he says. "I'm in a nice tradition."

The Saskatchewan Poet Laureate program is a partnership between the Saskatchewan Arts Board and the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild, under the patronage of the Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan, and in collaboration with SaskCulture Inc. through funding from the Saskatchewan Lotteries Trust Fund for Sport, Culture and Recreation.

Photo: Hans Dommash