— by Lin McNulty —

“Poetry, like jazz, is one of those dazzling diamonds of creative industry that help human beings make sense out of the comedies and tragedies that contextualize our lives.” –Aberjhani

Get your pens, your paper, and/or your keyboard ready as Orcas Issues once again invites our local poets to submit up to three original poems for our popular feature, when we post a poem a day for the month of April.

National Poetry Month was inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996. Over the years, it has become the largest literary celebration in the world with schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers, and poets celebrating poetry’s vital place in our culture. Orcas Issues Poetry Month was inaugurated in 2009. And over the years, it, too, has become a treasured literary celebration on our island.

Over the years, some of the best poems printed on Orcas Issues have been written by our local poets. To specifically bring light to this potential treasure trove of poetry, Orcas Issues will be accepting poetry submissions through the month of March 2017.

Please send us your poem in an email text, or a Word document to: editor@theorcasonian.com, with the word “Poetry” in the subject line.

Limit of three submissions per poet, please, for this juried event.