Art Stroll Through Port Angeles Fine Arts Center’s Webster Woods Sculpture Garden
Last week I had the opportunity to stroll the more accessible, gradual gravel path in Webster Woods, which offers a dramatic view toward the Strait. I encountered some beautiful large works in the open air exhibit.
Among them was my 2025 Poetry in the Park placard, “Varied Ixoreus Thrush,” as part of “Summer Music.” You may listen to my reading of this poem on the PAFAC website.
Photographs by Laura E. Garrard.
Moth Cathedral by Heather Dawn Sparks.A Seat in the Trees by Jennifer Kapnek
The Chroma Zone by Jennifer Kapnek
A rock providing intelligent prose! When asking, “Who am I, What Should I do?,” perhaps we look to what we love!
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:
Laura E. Garrard reading her poem “I Have to Chase That Squirrel,” June 18, 2022.
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.)
I am proud to announce that my multimedia figurative painting “Flowing Through Impermanence” has been selected to appear in the Resilient & Creative Art Exhibit at the Port Angeles Fine Art Center, Aug. 13-Sept. 26, 2021.
14×18″ Acrylic, Pencil and Ink on Canvas, Custom Framed in 2″ White Oak – $600
The Walk
Tall, striking
New pink sneakers
Countenance of a tree
She glances at me
Actually, looks directly
I see her full expression
And feel myself weeks ago
Scared, strong, in fear, clear, near tears
The unknown has hit
The big leveler
The death inviter
The life challenger
Out of her experience
Out of her control
Swing set emotion
Up to down to up
Turning up the compost
Bringing up the rot
Mixing rich earth
With decomposing parts
She walks with dignity
With desperation
Because she knows
That her present and future
Are in constant question
And she's trying to flow
But not give in
Life is too precious
And the trick is
Not wanting it too badly
There's the rotting rub
How to survive
Remain oneself
Be the gracious woman
You've learned to be
Without handing your life, body and soul
Over to those
Who have no idea what makes you full
I smile to her
For I'm in it too
Just a different side of the walk
Looking across I'm now able to see
My own feelings reflected
And put two and two together
For myself, perhaps for her
And I hope my simple smile
Provides a calm kindness
The truest type of assistance
No overstepping, no talking, no giving
Having been there myself
Now walking not just for me
By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021
Dec. 5, 2020
In celebration of Poetry in Your Pocket Day, during this Poetry Month of April, I recorded myself reciting this poem (in the above video) while kayaking on Crescent Lake.
I became a drop of water one day
I floated from a cloud into a high hillside creek
And flowed downward to join a magnificent turquoise river
The river rushed into an emerald oblong lake
Where I greeted trout and merganser feet
I filled the entire lake as all drops linked together
I felt my body reach from one shore to the other
As well as separate to myself, the original droplet
After I had known fully my lake environ
I streamed out to the bay, then rougher moving sea
Joining currents stronger than me
Carrying me to other shores and other beings
I grew in knowledge, strength, and courage
Finally after a lifespan, I recognized myself again
For the water is me
Fills me
Nourishes me
And heals me
I became a drop of water one day
And through it realized the essence of all creation
By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021
Feb. 5, 2021
[Top and Below Photos all by Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021]
I sigh
Sitting on a tree
Someday is here
By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021
March 15, 2021
[Photo Top: "Sitting on a Tree;" Below Left: "Thinking Log;" Below Right: "Rainforest Window;" By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021]
“Sitting Inside a Cedar, 1 & 2,” by Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021.
Ever get
To sit
Inside a tree?
By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021
March 18, 2021
I’m tucked in moss
Peeking up from the needles and the frost
Peering across your tremendous tongue
Lapping toward my trueness
As in nature I am in bed
With all that is and once was
Cover me with gentle breeze caress
As I close my lids, dust dissolves
My final home lovingly evolves
By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021
Feb. 5, 2021
[Photographs by Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021]
Recognition
So easily we are sucked in
To rhythm, to culture, to doing
Again and again we try to escape
Those dreaded thoughts I should
It peers, leers from around the hall corner
Of our calm, beige alcoves
And lures us in as dreams, discovery
Snaking around our ankles
Until it catches hold
Dragging us unknowingly to the depths
Of holes we never quite escape
Just when our chins reach the rim
And purity begins its rise
We let go of our reclaiming
The depth of who we really are
In exchange for ambition, adoration
Short-lived achievements and the next
The next, what’s next, yes it’s always next
For what are we if not our doings
Are we anything but a wisp, a breeze
An unfilled chalice
I become as smooth as water
As I gaze into the waving reflection
The continuity of rolling liquid
Explains the repetitive nothingness existing
So frighteningly inside us
A vast vase holding who knows what for what reason
Except for those who can break away from the serpent of season
Conquer the self and end the circle of want and challenge
And enter the peace of it’s done, everlasting satisfaction
The soul need not be searched
It’s already fully present
Waiting for the moment of complete solace
Recognizing that being known is not making renowned a name
Or being drawn to destiny
It’s about the unborn waiting for its first breath
And the death of desire to be anything but breath itself
By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021
Jan. 22, 2021
[Photo above: "Riding Reflection," By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021]
“Lake Reflections 1,” By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021
“Lake Reflections 2,” By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021
Poetry In Time 