SULLIVANS ISLAND, S.C. - From the windows of Marjory Wentworth's garret, one can see, depending upon the direction, the Sullivans Island Lighthouse, glimpses of open ocean or the silver-gray towers of the Cooper River bridges.

That's fitting, because much of the verse by South Carolina's new poet laureate is about the skyscapes and seascapes, the marshes and rivers of the coast.

"Poetry is a particular way of making sense of things - things you don't quite understand," she says, sitting in the book-cluttered room atop an 1853 home that was once a gatehouse for a mansion that no longer exists. "It's a way of making something affirmative."

A 45-year-old mother of three who is married to a film producer, Wentworth's writing credits include "What the Water Gives Me," a collaboration with artist Mary Edna Fraser; the chapbook "Nightjars" and the forthcoming "Noticing Eden."

She succeeds Bennie Lee Sinclair, who died three years ago after serving as South Carolina's poet laureate for 24 years.

Wentworth, who has written poetry since her early teens, has worked as a book and film publicist and this fall will teach at Charleston County's School of the Arts. Born and raised in a small Massachusetts town on the northern edge of Boston Harbor, she at one time considered a career in ballet.

Her family moved to Sullivans Island a few weeks before Hurricane Hugo hit in 1989. They were out of the house more than a year while repairs were made.

Among the new friends they made on the island were Mark and Jenny Sanford. Wentworth read the poem "Rivers of Wind" for Mark Sanford's inauguration as governor in January.

"There's lots of poets in the state but not everybody writes about the landscape, and that's sort of my thing and I know it's something Mark is passionate about," Wentworth says. "It just sort of fell into place."

Then, late this spring, her son answered the phone one day. It was the governor's office. Wentworth had been appointed poet laureate.

"I never expected or talked to anyone about being poet laureate," she says. "It's nice in life to have a good surprise instead of a bad surprise."

In recent months, she has received dozens of letters and e-mails from people, many of them poets, from across the state and beyond. One sent wine. One sent stockings "because they thought my legs look great on TV," Wentworth laughs.

Others sent poetry manuscripts. Some have even called and read their work to her answering machine.

"I just think they want me to know they are writing poetry," Wentworth says. "People write poetry, and I think they think suddenly: 'Here's somebody I can share this with.'"

Poetry, she says, is not just about poets giving readings or writing works to be published in thin volumes. It's about creativity, something Wentworth says everyone needs to cultivate.

"The arts isn't about kids growing up to be artists," she says. "You have to have that creative way of thinking. You need creativity to figure out how to solve problems whether it be fixing your relationship or on the job."

That's why, she says, poetry and creative writing are so important in schools.

"If you teach it and kids write about the things they care about - the things that are really on their minds - they care about the spelling, they care about the language, they care about the grammar," she says. "I have seen it happen over and over and over again."

If you walk into an elementary school, she says, creativity is celebrated amid the drawings and stories and poems adorning the walls.

"In the middle schools, it's hardly there, and when you get to high school, it's like they take the creativity and wring it out of them," she says. "Nobody wins in that situation."

The appointment from Sanford means Wentworth is poet laureate for life - a heavy responsibility but one she views with a bit of relief. If it were for only one governor's term, there would be more pressure, she says.

"Now there's not all that pressure to do the best job I can in a very short time," she says. "I'm kind of relieved I don't have that pressure because it is a responsibility and an honor."

Wentworth plans to give readings and work to get more poetry and creative writing in the schools. She's working with others on a Web site to let writers and poets know about reading opportunities, contests and the like.

She's also exploring the idea of a writers' corps, which has been tried in other places. Using both public and private money, writers go into communities and give readings and workshops.

"I'm trying at this point to listen," she says. "My mandate is just like the national poet laureate. My job is to bring poetry to the people."