poem for a stormy day…

2009 Merit Award
By Christine M. Kendall

With wind gusting to 45 knots, waves on Bellingham Bay
roil grey-green and formidable, they slap
over the breakwater, in a white, foaming froth.
Spindrift shoots southeast out of Hale’s Pass dousing
the Lummi shoreline, obscuring Eliza in a veiled mist.
This is a day to be inside, onshore and cozy,
sipping coffee, keeping a weather eye out of curiosity,
not out of necessity, feeling solid footing,
instead of riding the swells. A stout, green and white
Foss tugboat with a bone in her teeth
hastens towards Fairhaven on a mission
to retrieve a barge broken free of its moorings.
Watching the tug’s determined course in such a
tempest, I think of the crew and speculate whether
they sip coffee, and talk of sports, or other storms,
and if for them this is all in a day’s work?

*Copyright 2009 by Christine M. Kendall. This poem appears in POETRY WALK: Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest – The First Five Years. Placard design by Egress Studio.

under and above*

By Luther Allen
2007 Walk Award

     under, in the ground:

                    turgid roots and worming worms
                    swimming and swirling
                    in the slow damp current
                    of the depthless earth

     and above, exposed:

                    the tidal creep of blackberry
                    the surf of thimbleberry blossoms
                    the sharp spray of scotch broom
                    spitting droplets of rufus hummingbird
                                                            far into the sky

*Copyright 2007 by Luther Allen. This poem appears in POETRY WALK: Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest – The First Five Years. Info: Book! Placard design by Egress Studio.
This poem also appears in The View from Lummi Island with the title “May 13.”

POETRY WALK hits its stride!

We are SO pleased – and SO grateful – to report that POETRY WALK: Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest, The First Five Years was Number 4 (among all books) on the Village Books Top 10 Bestsellers for the Week of December 9 – December 15 AND the Number ONE selling poetry book at Village Books for all of 2010!*

Congratulations to everyone who had a hand in setting this terrific record – our poets, donors, committee, community and, of course, Village Books!

*Congratulations are also due to the Sue Boynton Contest committee chair, Luther Allen, whose book, The View from Lummi Island, was the Village Books Number Two selling poetry book for 2010!

lummi island*

2006 Walk Award
By Luther Allen

          outcroppings of bedrock and
          erratics strewn amongst the till;
          the insistent pushy blackberry,
          the solid old firs, ragged but anchored in deep;
          the stinging nettle thriving in disturbance—
folk on the island, character
deepened by chosen isolation
and a clear lack of anonymity
living in a confined, but very public, universe
there is nowhere to go but round & round or off—
all, somehow, making community.

*Copyright 2006 by Luther Allen. This poem appears in POETRY WALK: Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest – The First Five Years. Info: Book! Placard design by Egress Studio. This poem also appears under the title ‘November 18′ in the book The View from Lummi Island. More information here.

Watching the Storm*

2009 Merit Award
By Christine M. Kendall

With wind gusting to 45 knots, waves on Bellingham Bay
roil grey-green and formidable, they slap
over the breakwater, in a white, foaming froth.
Spindrift shoots southeast out of Hale’s Pass dousing
the Lummi shoreline, obscuring Eliza in a veiled mist.
This is a day to be inside, onshore and cozy,
sipping coffee, keeping a weather eye out of curiosity,
not out of necessity, feeling solid footing,
instead of riding the swells. A stout, green and white
Foss tugboat with a bone in her teeth
hastens towards Fairhaven on a mission
to retrieve a barge broken free of its moorings.
Watching the tug’s determined course in such a
tempest, I think of the crew and speculate whether
they sip coffee, and talk of sports, or other storms,
and if for them this is all in a day’s work?

*Copyright 2009 by Christine M. Kendall. This poem appears in POETRY WALK: Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest – The First Five Years. Info: Book! Placard design by Egress Studio.

Boynton winner profiled in Bellingham Herald

Two-time Sue Boynton Poetry Contest Walk Award winner and current contest chair, Luther Allen, is profiled by Dean Kahn in the November 1, 2010 edition of the Bellingham Herald.

Luther Allen will offer one of two poetry workshops to benefit the Sue Boynton Poetry Contest on Saturday, November 13. Details on the Events page. He will also read from The View from Lummi Island at Village Books, 7pm, Tuesday, November 16, 2010. The reading is free; books will be available for sale.

More information on Allen’s book, The View from Lummi Island, here.

Poetry reading and book signing

Two-time Sue Boynton Poetry Contest Walk Award winner (2006 and 2007) and current contest committee chair Luther Allen will read poems and sign copies of his new collection, The View from Lummi Island, on Saturday, September 4, 4:00pm, and Sunday, September 5, 1:00pm, at the Heritage Trust Resource Center, 3560 Sunrise Road, Lummi Island. Book sales will benefit the Lummi Island Heritage Trust and land conservation on Lummi Island. More at http://othermindpress.wordpress.com.