William Semo

Laurel Highlands Poet William Semo

Growing up in the Laurel Highlands there is no shortage of inspiration to be found. A great country music songwriter once told me when he found my notebooks of poems that when you walk the trail long enough, the words just come naturally. I used to sit on the shores of Lake Erie and in the Laurel Highlands and carry these small notebooks with me. Sometimes they became so worn and torn and covered in moss that they themselves took on their own quality and their own feeling. Some were covered in sand from Lake Erie, others in moss and cool waters from Lynn Run State Park. Some were held in history like Fort Ligonier, where I spent my childhood.