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!
TulipTree Review‘s Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Top nominated my 2024 Merit Prize winning poem, “Hugging Alder,” for a Pushcart Prize. This honor is difficult to write about because I was quite surprised and grateful. So that you can read it easily, here is a link to a second contest I have entered it into, The Nature of Our Times: Poems on America’s Lands, Waters, Wildlife, and Other Natural Wonders. It will be considered for publication in an anthology published by Paloma Press of California in connection with the Kent State Wick Center and PoetsforScience.org. Originally, TulipTree published the poem in Stories That Need to be Told, 2024.
I am proud that a new poetry series based on my unpublished manuscript is appearing on OncoLink, the Net’s first cancer information website. This site is associated with Penn Medicine and provides information to patients, caregivers and medical staff internationally. One handy feature is a thorough database of cancer meds, what they do and their possible side effects.
My poems appear on their Creative Inspiration page under Patients: Support and in a dedicated section, Poetry That Fits. This title suggests my authentic poetic responses to the situations and emotions I have faced as well as the sardonic irreverent tone that is often necessary. Spirituality and hope are undercurrents yet I don’t hide the grit, the fits.
My first poem has published this week and five more, one per week, will post in this set. I hope that those with cancer, and those who care for and about them, will find validation, healing, resonance, and further understanding of this unique stressful experience in our culture.
I wrote most of my poems in real time–as incidents, thoughts and emotions unfolded–then edited them into a full-length poetry memoir about the two years following a diagnosis of a plasmacytoma tumor then progression to multiple myeloma. Every time I reread my book, I underline the importance of present-minded living for myself and review the wisdom this challenge has taught me… is still teaching me.
You may relate having navigated a different turnpike. I hope these poems offer solace and company through your own traumatic events and uninvited adaptations. None of us are isolated in our struggles when we share, listen and find common ground.
Reading of “The More Moments I Find Prismatic, the Less Dark My Attic.”
The order of this first segment of poems will appear as follows:
“The More Moments I Find Prismatic, The Less Dark My Attic”
“The First Axe Falls”
“Stigmatized and Written Off”
“Looking Out, Looking In”
“I Don’t Have All the Answers”
“I Can’t Go Back”
If you would like to find out more about my unpublished full-length manuscript, fill out the form below and click, Contact Us. Currently, I am entering my book into contests and submitting it to small presses for possible publication.
Enjoying the Calm
Today I approached the lake
And observed that she was very still.
She said, I’m thinking.
About what? I asked.
My destiny,
About where I’m going.
Ah, me too, I said.
I’d rather stay here with you.
Me too, I agreed,
This valley holds infinite beauty
And nourishes my breath and body.
She said, But if we stay here
We will not discover
What may happen
If we were to explore
Elsewhere.
I said, True,
But we can be
Here together now,
Enjoy your sparkling sunshine,
And not worry about leaving just yet.
She said the winter storms are coming-
I don’t want them to, but they will-
The waves and current
Will carry this me away.
I know, I said,
We will spend some time
And enjoy the calm.
By Laura E. Garrard
Oct. 8 2021
All photos above and below by Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021
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
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]
I drive in misty times Returning home anew A rainbow parades my presence Stretching from north to south Of our lakeside view Sun from behind perfectly sets the stage A reassuring gesture Wilderness’ way of welcome To this stranger From a place of fresh experience Unknowns abounding Is this really my reality? And yet the ribbon rest assures These are the colors you’ve chosen This You may truly be different Even though the unruly untimely side plot chapter Seems not your probable parent This is still your place of power This vulnerable spot, ever-changing As you watch the weather projecting The lack of control and protection In life, yet it is a type of comfort You within the stillness nature brings So enjoy, playful otter The Thunderbird directs from above And the rainbow spans the distance Between this self and the former, Heaven and the horizon Shining light, perhaps ultimate truth, on clearer water
By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2020
Oct. 23, 2020
“Crescent Rainbow” & Above Photo (“Rainbow in Mist”) By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021
Poetry In Time 