Miz Ryan has been teaching English in community colleges for thirty years. She made community colleges the centerpiece of her poetry project. She calls it Poetry for the Mind’s Joy. It includes an online poetry page. Miz Ryan also helped organize a poetry writing competition among community college students.

Kay Ryan said she wanted to celebrate the fact that all over America, community colleges save lives and minds. And, she says, they do it with very little financial support.

She says she cannot think of a more efficient, hopeful or fair machine, except maybe the bicycle.

STEVE EMBER: The Community College Humanities Association teamed with Miz Ryan and the Library of Congress for Poetry for the Mind’s Joy. David Berry is executive director of the association. He also teaches history at Essex County College in Newark, New Jersey. Mister Berry says at least one hundred ten community colleges across the nation took part in the poetry competition. A winning poem was chosen from each school.

One of the winners is nineteen year old Nicholas Godfrey from Rome, Georgia. He has been studying for two years at Georgia Highlands Community College. Next, he will attend the University of Georgia to continue writing and graduate with a degree in English.

NICHOLAS GODFREY: “Writing’s something I’ve always done. My imagination kind of turned into words, and I’d start putting those words on a page.”