Island Senior: Entries now accepted for new poetry garden poems

Poetry garden at the Mullis Center – Photo credit: Peggy Sue McRae

If you have not experienced Friday Harbor’s poetry gardens, you can find them at the Mullis Center, on Reed St. beside the U.S. Post Office, at the San Juan Community Theatre, and at Spring Street Landing below Downriggers. The poetry gardens were created to bring poetry into our town’s daily experience.

The gardens are a project of the Friday Harbor Arts Commission, together with a committee of local citizens who established them in the spring of 2020. All residents of San Juan County are encouraged to submit new poems for 2023. The contest, sponsored by the Town of Friday Harbor and the Friday Harbor Arts Commission, will be held through Oct. 31. Winning poems will be announced in February.

Engravings of the 30 winning poems will be on display this coming year, replacing the earlier winning poetry. A book of the poems will also be published for limited distribution. Copies of the winning poems from 2020 are available for free by sending an email to Town Hall.

There is no entry fee, but entrants must live in San Juan County. Winning poems in both adult and student divisions will be determined by former Washington State Poet Laureate and Seattle Civic Poet, Claudia Castro Luna.

To enter, mail your poems to Poetry Garden Contest, Town of Friday Harbor, P.O. Box 219, Friday Harbor, WA 98250 — or deliver to Town Hall at 60 Second St. The deadline is Monday, Oct. 31.

Here is a sample from the 2020 winning selections — One Less Thing by Susie Foster Hale:

This morning
a small red dessert bowl
slipped from my hand and
smashed on the marble counter –
a shock of shards, splinters of glass.
Freedom sometimes startles me.

View the full list of guidelines for the 2023 poetry garden contest.

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