Port Angeles Fine Arts Center
My poem below was selected, by the Olympic Peninsula Writers through a juried submission, to appear for a year in the PAFAC New Growth outdoors exhibit in the Webster Woods sculpture garden. Following a year, it will be moved with other poems to a number of parks in Port Angeles. It’s very exciting to have been chosen! Below is a photograph of me with the installation on the day of the poetry reading.
Here is a recording of my reading:
I Have to Chase That Squirrel Start at a run from the door And accelerate to top lope Just as I reach the base of the Douglas fir Even if I’m too late to catch it My instinct must be served You laugh and shrug For me, it’s not just for fun It’s my essence, my expression My way to tell the world What kind of dog I am So free me to do What I want, what I must Responsibility, according to whom? My number one purpose right now Is to chase that squirrel Even though I’m scared I won’t succeed I must look skyward to see On which limb the squirrel may be Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2022
Standing beside my New Growth poetry installation in Webster Woods, June 18, 2022.
(Photograph by Michael Nordell.)
My poem perfectly installed in Webster Woods next to a Douglas fir tree at a trail hub.
(Photograph by Laura E. Garrard.)
I took these photographs as spring turned into summer on the “Moments in Time Trail,” Olympic National Park. I feel they tie in nicely with the New Growth theme. (Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2022.)
Poetry In Time 