Thanks again and again!

It takes a lot more than a village to make a poetry contest and the Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest extends our thanks to everyone that contributed to this year’s success:

In particular, we salute teachers, students and poets throughout Whatcom County and their families, friends and fans.

The contest is enormously grateful for the generous financial support of
Luther Allen; Anonymous; Rachel Ballard; Phyllis Boernke; Paula Brown; The Boynton Family; Grandson of Sue C. Boynton; Solon & Sharon Boynton; Nancy Canyon; Karen Cook; Megan Crouse & Chris Morton; Corey Denos; Drake Family Fund of the Whatcom Community Foundation; Charles Dyer & Bert Monroe; Susan J. Erickson & George Lindeman; Arlene Feld; Linda & Paul Fisher; Norman L. Green & Sherwin Sarjeant; Libby Hazen; Christine Kendall & Jack Kienast; Elizabeth Kerwin; J.I. Kleinberg; David & Judith Laws; Suzanne & Tim Lucy; Peggie Merlin; Brenda Miller; Marla & Steve Morrow; Pam Muehlhausen; Martin & Sheila Nickerson; Rena Priest & Andrew Shaffer; Chuck & Dee Robinson; Ellie Rogers; Colleen & Harvey Schwartz; and Sheila Sondik & Paul Sarvasy.

The contest also deeply appreciates the gifts of time and other resources from
The Bellingham Herald; awards ceremony emcee, Jim Bertolino; BTV10 and Dal Neitzel; Bellingham Public Library; Birchwood Garden Club; Ciao Thyme; Community Food Co-op; Copies Now; contest founder, George Drake; Egress Studio; Hypersphere Web Design; Carolyn McCarthy & Kent Chasson; Jerry McGarity; Mindport Exhibits; contest judges, Jeffrey Morgan and Betty Scott; our workshop instructors, Sheila Nickerson, Paul Piper and Cindi Williamson; Jan Crook Pierson; Boris Schleinkofer; Village Books; Karee Wardrop; Whatcom County Library System; Whatcom Poetry Series; Whatcom Transportation Authority; and Woods Coffee.

We couldn’t have done it without our tireless contest committee: J.I. Kleinberg and Sheila Sondik (co-chairs), Rachel Ballard, Nancy Canyon, Susan J. Erickson, Norman L. Green, Christine Kendall, Tim Lucy, Joan Packer and Ellie Rogers.

Thanks, one and all!

The Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest is a program of Whatcom Poetry Series, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Tax-deductible donations (payable to Whatcom Poetry Series — note Boynton on memo line) are gratefully accepted at: Sue Boynton Poetry Contest, PO Box 1192, Bellingham, WA 98227

Thank You, Whatcom County!

What a wonderful evening of poetry and celebration. The awards ceremony for the 7th Annual Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest was fun, delicious and inspiring. The poems selected by judges Betty Scott and Jeffrey Morgan were filled with astute reflection, humor and well-honed language. Plus, they were read beautifully by the poets.

The dome room at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal was packed with an attentive audience. Through the windows that served as a backdrop to the poets, the audience was treated to a view of a perfect May evening, across Bellingham Bay all the way to the snowy peaks of Canada.

There’s more to come… The event was podcast by poet Boris Schleinkofer and we’ll post a link to the podcast soon. In the coming months, most of the winning poets will be taped for broadcast by Bellingham TV 10 and their readings will be shown between other programming on the local station and also posted on YouTube, with links on this page.

By about July, we expect to have the Walk Award plaques completed for installation in front of the Bellingham Public Library, and the colorful placards, designed by Egress Studio, delivered to Whatcom Transportation Authority for their year-long bus tour around the county. We’ll be posting the placards on this site as well and they’ll be linked to the poems listed on the Winners page.

We’re extremely grateful to our judges, donors (both $ and in-kind) audience and planning committee. And we’re especially grateful to all of the poets throughout Whatcom County who submitted poems to the contest, whether or not they were selected as winners.

We’ll offer a little more gratitude in a coming post, but for the moment, special thanks to Dean Kahn and photographer Andy Bronson from The Bellingham Herald, who covered last night’s event and were inadvertently left off the thank-you list.

Thank you, one and all…and congratulations for participating in and supporting this wonderful community event!
—–
chapbook of winning poems designed by Ellie Rogers
cover photo of Mt. Shuksan © Marc Griffin

ornament…

Let’s decorate the season with gratitude!

season’s brightenings…

‘Tis the season…what’s on your gratitude list? The Harvard Medical School suggests, “In positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish positive experiences, have better health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.”

We’ve noticed recent postings of gratitude by Nikki Hardin, Joannie Kervran Stangeland and Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.

Among the season’s many blessings, we’re particularly grateful that you show up here and read these words. Thank you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a very poetic and delicious Thanksgiving!

season of giving…

Though good news, these days, has to struggle to take its place amidst the world’s disasters, sometimes you just have to shake your head at the pure wonderfulness of an idea. Meet Concord Free Press.

Concord is a press, yes. They publish books, one at a time, two titles a year, both paper and electronic. Their books on paper are printed in a limited, numbered edition, which they give — yes, give, free — to bookstores around the U.S. (and Vancouver, BC).

In turn, those bookstores, which, incidentally, include Village Books (Bellingham) and Edmonds Bookshop (Edmonds), offer the books free, first-come, first-served, to their customers. In return, they ask that the customers make a donation, equivalent to the price of the book (or more!), to a charity or cause of the customer’s choosing. Donations are tracked on the Concord Free Press website — $230,475 to date!

Concord Free Press is supported by grants and donations. They call it generosity publishing. And while we’re fierce advocates for spending your money at your local independent bookstore, we think this is a breathtakingly wonderful idea and a piece of good news worth sharing.

thanks again!

366 and counting…

The Sue Boynton Contest blog launched just over a year ago, on July 2, 2010. This is our 366th post. Special thanks to the poets and poetry enthusiasts who are our readers and even to the people who enter a term in a search engine, find us accidentally and linger here for a while. We value your comments and appreciate your support of community creativity in Whatcom County, Washington — and elsewhere.

gratitude…

The Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest extends our deepest gratitude to Luther Allen, who has capably captained the contest as committee chair since 2008. With the wrap-up of the 2011 contest, Luther, who is a two-time Walk Award winner, the author of The View from Lummi Island and the founder of Other Mind Press, has officially resigned from the committee to pursue his writing, design work, home-building and other projects.

As Contest founder, George F. Drake, commented by e-mail:

“‘Tis time to move on but I, for one, want to express to you my heartfelt appreciation for your leadership of the Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest. You shared my dream and helped make it real. You put together a talented committee and helped guide them in the creation of a wonderful community cultural program that, hopefully, will continue to bring out the poets among us, young and old, over many years to come. Your creative energy will be missed but ’tis time to move on. Thanks for all that you have contributed to the cause of poetry in Whatcom County.”

Thank you, Luther!

To take up some of the slack left by Luther’s departure, the committee is seeking a couple of energetic, well-organized, poetry-loving volunteers from Whatcom County. Interested? Send a note to BoyntonPoetryContest AT hotmail DOT com.

gratitude…

It takes a lot of time, energy, money and people to put together a poetry contest. The Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest is extremely grateful to everyone who contributed to the success of this year’s event.

Our special gratitude to this year’s corporate and individual donors: WECU; The Boynton Family; Jennifer Bullis; Drake Family Fund of the Whatcom Community Foundation; Arlene Feld; Luther Allen; Paula Brown; Nancy Canyon; Cheryl Crooks; Denise duMaurier; Susan J. Erickson & George Lindeman; Jo Ann Heydron & Warren Miller; Christine Kendall & Jack Kienast; J.I. Kleinberg; Alicia & Walt Kochan; Judith & David Laws; Suzanne, Tim & Rachel Lucy; Maria McLeod; Peggie Merlin; Marla & Steve Morrow; Pam Muehlhausen; Lynda Olsen; Naomi Rudo & Greg Stern; Darilyn Sigel & Dan Liden; and Sheila Sondik & Paul Sarvasy.

Additional thanks to Lana Hechtman Ayers; Jim Bertolino; BTV10 and Dal Neitzel; Bellingham Cruise Terminal; Bellingham Public Library; Birchwood Garden Club; Jennifer Bullis; Ciao Thyme; Community Food Co-op; Copies Now; Egress Studio; Katie Humes; Maria McLeod; Mindport Exhibits; Kevin Murphy; Stan Tag; Village Books; Jeremy Voigt; Karee Wardrop; Devan Wardrop-Saxton; Whatcom County Library System; Whatcom Poetry Series; Whatcom Transportation Authority; Woods Coffee; and teachers, students and poets throughout Whatcom County.

Thanks in particular to our tireless contest committee: Luther Allen (chair), Nancy Canyon, Susan J. Erickson, Christine Kendall, J.I. Kleinberg, Tim Lucy, Joan Packer, Colleen Schwartz and Sheila Sondik.