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Correction: John York, English teacher at Penn-Griffin School for the Arts, recently won the Poet Laureate Award. His status was listed incorrectly in the Dec. 28 Guilford Record. Kathryn Stripling Byer , the North Carolina Poet Laureate, selected York as the winner of the contest. The North Carolina Poet Laureate is selected by the governor.

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John York, English teacher at Penn-Griffin School for the Arts, recently won the North Carolina Poet Laureate Award.

York, 55, received the state honor earlier this year. York decided to move to Penn-Griffin when the school system decided to change the school from a middle school to a sixth-through-12th-grade arts magnet school. The senior class will be phased in next year.

York has been a teacher for 30 years and a writer even longer. "I've been writing since high school," York said. "I was a closet poet, and I didn't really want to admit it."

Growing up in rural Yadkin County, York realized he didn't share the interests of many of his peers.

But, as a high school junior, York was inspired by teacher Hayes McNeill to submit his work to the school's literary magazine.

"He gave me a lot of good advice on how to write. I still turn to him for advice," York said.

The budding poet continued to write and submit his work to literary magazines in college.

He studied under A.R. Ammons, Fred Chappell, Lee Zacharais and Robert Watson. York also lists a host of workshops, fellowships and seminars he's attended and some that he's hosted himself. Most of York's writing is nonfiction or poetry, usually about his boyhood.

The teacher said his writing is probably a bit old fashioned. Whereas a lot of today's writers write almost in code, in an abstract form, York believes in meeting the reader halfway.

He also believes that everyone has a common ground, a common language. Part of "Naming the Constellations" relates this idea.

"It started as a reaction to this post-modern idea that (things) are relative and there is no common ground," York said of his poem. "I feel like there are some certain shared beliefs and feelings that connect us to one another. Poetry has the ability to tap into experiences."

Although ancient Romans and Greeks and modern day astronomers call the constellations and stars by different names, there is still a connection of recognizing the constellations and seeing them in the night sky. York also laments the loss of this connection because of air and light pollution.

Children won't be able to understand stories that refer to constellations because they won't be able to see the stars in the night school. Light pollution also poses a threat to health. Migrating birds and people's natural sleep patterns are disrupted, York said. Lack of sleep is associated with other health problems, like breast cancer, he said.

"There's this idea that the city is where things happen, is sophisticated and where everybody wants to go," he said. But, the city has a way of limiting people.

The poem calls for living in a more simpler time, away from the bright lights of the city.

York worked on the four-stanza poem for years. It began as many of his poems do -- with a nagging idea or phrase. "I start with an image that won't let me alone."

He then works on the poem, reshaping it and reworking it, until "I feel it's the best I can do or I give up."

"I have a great affection for language," York said. "I have an enthusiasm for what language can do, and it's something I want to share."

Contact E.A. Seagraves at 883-4422, Ext. 241, or elizabeth.seagraves@news-record.com