Friday Harbor Poetry Garden contest winners announced

— from Julie Greene for Town of Friday Harbor —

The Town of Friday Harbor and Friday Harbor Arts Commission (FHAC) have announced the winners of their first Poetry Garden Contest. A blind judging process was used to review 271 poems submitted by 90 San Juan County residents. Final selections were made by Washington State Poet Laureate Claudia Castro Luna and include 20 adults and 10 students grades three to 12.

Winning poems will be published in a book as well as engraved for display at four outdoor “poetry gardens” located in Friday Harbor including the San Juan Community Theatre, the Mullis Community Senior Center, next to the post office, and the waterfront viewing area below Downriggers.

All poets and interested community members are invited to a celebratory unveiling at noon Friday, April 24 in front of the Community Theatre.

This was the first time the FHAC partnered with a committee of local citizens on a public art project. The FHAC was formed in November 2014 by the Town of Friday Harbor to advise the Town Council on the selection, placement, and maintenance of public art.

• Holli Brown (“South Beach”),
• Janet Dann (“Deer Crossing”),
• Sally Green (“Injured Owl”)
• Samuel Green (“Black Walnut”)
• Susie Foster Hale (“15 Seconds Off Jackson Beach” and “One Less Thing”)
• David Kobrin (“The Vase”)
• Lynne Mercer (“Commentary”)
• Tara Moghadam (“Headlines” and “Round Earth, Small Cell in Some Universal Body”)
• JoEllen Moldoff (“Trumpeters, Mid-December”)
• Helen C. O’Connor (“Celestial Anchor”)
• Nancy Spaulding (“Overlooking the Straits”)
• Joan D. Stamm (“Haiku #2)
• Greg Sutherland (“The colors of the sea”)
• Gary Thompson (“The Island Broke Out”)
• Paul Walsh (“The Frog Drawer”)
• John C. Waugh (“Dawn Carrot”)
• William Jay Weissinger (“High Wind Warning”)
• Carmen Wolflisberg (“Lush”)

Student winners:

• Gavia Boyden (“Your Presence is Sweet Water” and “Where Night Breathes”)
• Zach Crichton (“Son of a Fisherman”)
• Cora Green (“Working It Out” and “Postcard from Sandy Point Beach, Waldron Island”)
• Abel Lehman (“A Walk on the Trails”)
• Amelia M. Munkres (“Fall”)
• James Sears (“Rulers of the Sky”)
• Tiffany Sears (“Dew”)
• Savannah Waugh (“My Island”)