A bill creating a Washington state poet laureate is on its way to the governor. The Senate voted 45-2 this morning on House Bill 1279.

The bill was sponsored by Rep. Mary Skinner, R-Yakima, who has pushed the idea before. But the idea of a poet laureate has been most identified with Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, who has been sponsoring bills since at least 1993. Jacobsen, though, has obviously ticked some people off this year, and he said shortly before the poet vote that while lots of his ideas are still moving this session, there aren't many of them in bills with his name on them. His poet laureate bill never got a hearing. http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/Summary.aspx?bill=8401&year=2007

"I won't have to go to too many bill signings this year. I probably won't even get a damn pen."

The poet laureate will serve a two-year term and while lawmakers face no term limits, the poet will be restricted to two terms. The only substantive difference between the Skinner and Jacobsen plans is Skinner's bill says the state Arts Commission can pay the poet what it thinks it should, and Jacobsen wanted the poet paid with one "firkin of Washington beer per year."

Jacobsen is the Legislature's most prolific bill writer this year. As Andrew Garber wrote last month:

All 99 bills he's introduced since the session opened in January — more than any other lawmaker in the state Legislature — serve a purpose, the Seattle Democrat said, even if most of them die.

"I'm into the theory of chaos. And in the theory of chaos, if this particle exists and this one comes into existence and this one doesn't know that one exists? It still affects the behavior of that one," he said, moving his hands around as if they were giant particles.

This morning Jacobsen stood in the wings of the Senate as Skinner's poet laureate bill was about to come up and said being on the front page of The Seattle Times may turn out to be like the well-known curse of a sports team that makes the cover of Sports Illustrated. But he didn't seem to mind that it wasn't his poet bill passing.

"It's my chaos theory working," he said.

It has been a long battle. I guess the anti-poetry lobby is strong in Olympia. When Jacobsen's bill died in the 1993 session, the AP writer and poet in residence Hal Spencer moved this lede on the wire:

OLYMPIA - Alas, poets of Washington.
'Tis a sad, gray day at the Legislature.
The bill to lift you From your rude garrets and dark cafes,
To give you voice In the drab bureaucracy,
The bill to create The Office of Poet Laureate
Has perished.
Is dead as Latin,
As gone as a cut in taxes.

O, were there no
Unctuous lobbyists to lean on lawmakers,
To sing the praises
Of an official poet?
Whose only pay
Other than the joy of shouting rhyme From the Capitol dome
Was to be a butt of wine
From the State Wine Commission,
At no,
O, no no no,
Cost to the taxpayer.