It’s a poetic first in the LoHud! Rockland County has named a Poet Laureate, Dan Masterson, who has been teaching English at Rockland Community College for 45 years. Read a press release on the county Web site.

Westchester County doesn’t have a poet laureate, according to a county spokeswoman. A check with Putnam County turned up a pledge to inquire. They were still checking—so if they once did, it doesn’t seem they do now. Rockland, then, is alone in naming a poet laureate.

Masterson is very well-known. Arthur Gunther, Editorial Page Editor here for many years, counts himself as a fan.

The American Poet Laureate is appointed by the Library of Congress. That person makes the post what he or she chooses, according to Library of Congress’ Web site — a lecture here, a public reading there are obligatory. And there’s advocacy for new poets, too.

So, what does a Rockland County poet laureate do? Well, there’s already a poetry event scheduled for November at RCC to celebrate the college’s 50th anniversary. Masterson has “inspired decades of students, from our honors students who have gone on to the Ivy League, to those who simply needed to learn the fine art of expression,” RCC President Cliff Wood states in the county press release announcing the appointment.

And, who decides who gets the post? Apparently, Masterson is going to help establish a protocol for selection of future poets laureate.

Added bonus: Comments from Arthur Gunther III, Rockland Editorial Page Editor emeritus:

I was both a student of Dan Masterson (at RCC, 1968) and 30 years later a newspaper commentator on his by then large body of poetry and accomplishment as a Rockland Community College professor.
As a student in his creative writing class, I was encouraged by Dan to write from life experience, however little one has at age 26, but also from the hope of the future, exiting the door of the past to the stage of the present to the door of the future, taking stock of a soul’s journey.
When, decades later, I wrote editorials and essays for The Journal News about Dan and his writings, I found that what his own life was all about was also taking a trip with one’s soul. He practiced what he preached.
A magnificent writer, an elegant man, a worthy first Rockland poet laureate.