A hush fell over the room as Anne Nydam, Needham’s inaugural poet laureate, recited “Home, Needham 2025” at a Select Board meeting last year. She described the poem as a tribute to the town and to Kate Fitzpatrick, the former town manager.
“The fact that Kate Fitzpatrick has been part of the life of Needham for so long, she cares about it,” Nydam said. “It made a really nice way to recognize her legacy while sort of looking forward into what we’re all hoping for going forward.”
Nydam stepped into the role in December 2024. As the first person to hold the position, she shaped it by saying “yes” to every opportunity that arose, organizing programs aimed at reaching residents of all ages and backgrounds across town.
One of her accomplishments is a crowdsourced poem, “The Sidewalks of Needham,” stitched from 90 contributions by town residents. Nydam said she hopes that every time someone reads it, the verses inspire a sense of connection and belonging.
“I think poetry is a way to give people hope, a window on each other,” Nydam said. “It’s a good thing. It’s an important thing.”
Serving in the role enriched Nydam’s writing and her reading of poetry. While preparing for the Juneteenth celebration, she discovered many poems previously unknown to her. “It’s widened me in a couple of different ways,” she said.
Nydam’s term ends June 30, and the town is searching for her successor. Officials extended the term to two years and raised the stipend from $500 to $1,500. Rob MacLean, director of the Needham Free Public Library, said the changes grew out of the town’s experience with Nydam and her feedback.
The next term runs from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2028. Applications for the program are being accepted through April 15 at noon.
“We’re looking for a new poet laureate who is willing to serve the town of Needham for two years, bringing their love of poetry to everybody across town and also helping explain why it’s important, especially today,” MacLean said.
The next laureate, he said, must craft meaningful poems and connect with the community as Nydam did. “They can’t just be a happy, friendly person who can’t put a couple of stanzas together,” he said. “So, they have to have the ability to excel at both.”
The role carries special weight in today’s climate, MacLean said, where poetry can draw communities together. “It connects with our soul in a way that helps us continue to do the hard and necessary work to make improvements in the world.”
When the program was first announced, Nydam hesitated to apply. “I thought, you know, Needham — we’ve got so many talented people here, I’m probably too small-time,” she said. It wasn’t until she saw the announcement again that she decided to apply. She hopes other artists “go ahead and apply because getting a variety of different people and different voices is part of the fun of this.”
Nydam said she hopes the next poet laureate will have fun with the role. “Don’t take it like either stressing out because you have to be the greatest poet ever, just if you love poetry and you’re excited about it,” she said, expressing a desire for the program to continue to grow and dreams that each laureate’s work will become part of Needham’s literary history.
“I would love people to be like, ‘Oh, Anne Nydam was a great poet laureate.’ [But] if the program grows and sticks, I’ll be very proud of that,” she said.
Nydam said she hopes she has inspired greater interest in poetry across the community. At the Needham Thrive Festival last year, she set up a tent to help people process emotions through writing. Only one person stopped by. They wrote nothing, but Nydam persuaded the person to go home and read poetry.
“Even though that was only one person, so in some ways it’s like, ‘Oh, that was OK, maybe that was a failure,’” she said. “But it really felt like a win.”