The following poems are included in a new anthology of poems written by over 30 Vashon poets, and edited by Jeanie Okimoto of Endicott and Hugh Books.
Editor’s note: We meant to include the following poem by Lynn Carrigan in our November issue, and feel it is just as rich in December! Enjoy.
Mid-November
In front of a warm cedar house
In leaf-dropping woods by the sea
Head high atop a wizening stalk
One last sunflower transmits
Its beacon-yellow message
Under the dissolving rain of fall
Above a radio tower below
It blinks back a signal of its own
Its broadcast insistent: I remain!
I am here, it calls, I am still here!
I will self-seed my own renewal
for a future I cannot see
Remember me and wish me safe
Passage through this long winter
I will not be as I am now
A longtime lover of literacy, Lynn likes languages, letters, libraries, locals, luggage, and sometimes lying.
More about Lynn:
“Before launching a career in journalism and social work, I came to poetry at 17. Thanks to my high school English teachers in Decatur, GA, during that time of raging battles for civil rights, I learned that the rich, story-telling language of the American South could balance the world’s heartbreaks with a close observation of both inner and outer experiences, an appreciation of small wonders, and the courage to make both sense and music with words.
Over the years my work has appeared in many professional conferences and publications, and my poetry most recently in Jeanie Okimoto’s 2025 poetry anthology Grief Age Love, the Wesleyan University anti-war anthology We Speak for Peace, Vashon Center for the Arts chapbooks Vashon Writes and The Work We Do, and presented over Voice of Vashon radio and the annual nationwide broadcast of 100Thousand Poets for Peace.”
~
the wave
There is a wave
that tempers the world
There is number and season
rhythm for stride
There are those ducks
afloat even in winters
that hold their chill
at any distance.
And here is a mist no eye can dispel
no eye to number the wave of days
or dot the horizon longer and higher
than those floating ducks
where time comes in waves
of no beginning or end.
~ Claudia Hollander-Lucas
Claudia Hollander-Lucas is a visual artist, writer, book-maker, and long-time Islander whose artwork can be found near and far in public and private collections. Visit her website and press called We Live In The Woods for details: claudiahollander-lucas.com
