Everett Henry Hoagland III

Everett Henry Hoagland III (1942-2025) born in Philadelphia to Estelle and Everett Hoagland. Everett embarked on his literally career while attending Lincoln University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1963, and getting his masters from Brown University. Everett planted roots in New Bedford, MA. Under the mentorship of Langston Hughes’ work, and became the city’s first poet laureate from 1994-1998. At SMU/UMass Dartmouth he became a professor of English and African American studies, where he taught for over 30 years.

Architect of icebergs, snowflakes,

crystals, rainbows, sand grains, dust motes, atoms.

Mason whose tools are glaciers, rain, rivers, ocean.

Chemist who made blood

of seawater, bone of minerals in stone, milk

of love. Whatever You are, I know this,

Spinner, You are everywhere, in All The

Ever-Changing Above, whirling around us.

Yes, in the loose strands,

in the rough weave of the common

cloth threaded with our DNA on the hubbed,

spoked Spinning Wheel that is this world, solar system, galaxy, universe.

Help us to see ourselves in all creation,

and all creation in ourselves, ourselves in one another.

— Everett Hoagland from 'Invocation'  from the anthology "Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology