Roses are red. Violets are blue. Time to see a poet or two.

Today the Neill Public Library will have an event titled “Washington Poets in Conversation.” The event features Washington Poet Laureate Elizabeth Austen, along with local poet and Washington State University creative writing professor Kimberly Burwick.

“Part of the program is that Austen tries to get a local poet to come in,” said Dan Owens, the adult services librarian at the Neill Public Library.

Supported by Humanities Washington and Washington State Arts Commission, the event will feature Austen reading her work and offering a Q&A session.

The library does these kinds of events as often as they can, usually every few months with the hope to increase that amount, Owens said. In November they will bring in Anthony Doerr, a Pulitzer Price Award author who wrote “All the Light We Cannot See.”

As the Poet Laureate, Austen has committed to traveling to all 29 counties in Washington. The tours include readings, writing workshops and stopping in schools and correctional facilities.

“One of the things poetry offers us is a chance to engage our sense of imaginative empathy,” Austen said. “When I read a poem, it invites me to experience what it’s like to be someone else.”

Most of Austen’s works are free verse poems. She uses her experience in acting to read in a performance style that she is told is very engaging and lively.

The response Burwick hears from people attending readings varies, but it’s one of her favorite parts about poetry readings.

“When the poems are on the page, you don’t always get to hear those responses,” she said. “But when the audience is there in front of you, it actually creates an amazing dialogue that I look forward to.”

Austen said poetry, in comparison to narrative works, is one of those things that’s condensed and distilled for an immediate, intense experience. She compares it to a piece of music, and how even listening to a short piece can alter her emotional state.

Her works dabble in various themes that relate to life and being human. These include societal messages to women and reflecting on change in spiritual living.

“The poems deal with many different aspects of being alive,” she said. “That sense of who are we and what’s possible in our lives.”

Burwick said she believes the spoken word is something that’s important to continue.

Going to these readings are a chance for people to hear a poet read their work the way they intended it to be heard, Owens said.

“The experience of listening to a poet read their own works is quite powerful,” he said.