Poetry

143 Stories

Haiku comics artist David Lasky on the textures of Seattle

David Lasky combines poetry and comics in his creative practice, to craft 3-panel narrative sequential art that explores his everyday observations of living here. A practitioner and teacher of haiku comics, Lasky brings together language with simple drawings and patterns that startle the imagination.
- Shin Yu Pai
Poet Tanya Holtland laments the toll of environmental apathy

In her Ballard-based poem "Golden Gardens," Tanya Holtland contemplates environmental pollution and its impacts on non-human species and future generations.
- Shin Yu Pai
Poet Omar Willey's 'incantation' pays tribute to ancestors of Seattle's First Nations

Born in Seattle, Omar Willey is the publisher of the online journal of arts and culture, "The Seattle Star," in which he writes about performing arts, science, experimental film, and open culture, as well as poetry.
- Shin Yu Pai
Poet Melinda Mueller gives voice to Cascadian ghost forests

Melinda Mueller was a coauthor of an early list of rare, threatened, and endangered plant species of Washington State. Her scientific knowledge and deep attention to nature give voice to the ghost forests that were once verdant woodland in her poem "Larva."
- Shin Yu Pai
Poet Samar Abulhassan on a historic beauty salon in Seattle's Central District

In "Sacred Bowl", Samar Abulhassan contemplates the living history of the the DeCharlene Salon, a Black-owned shop with more than 50 years of being in business within Seattle's Central District. During the pandemic, the rapport that Abulhassan established with the granddaughter of the salon's original owner helped her to feel connected to others and herself.
- Shin Yu Pai
E. Briskin on navigating Seattle drivers

In "Seattle, this poem isn't real—", E. Briskin delves into the habits of Northwest drivers who have been found in a recent independent survey from PEMCO Mutual Insurance to be less courteous and more aggressive than in recent years.
- Shin Yu Pai
Poet Lorna Dee Cervantes on the literary history of The Blue Moon Tavern

Lorna Dee Cervantes celebrates the rich literary history of The Blue Moon Tavern, favorite watering hole of poets like Carolyn Kizer, Allen Ginsberg, Theodore Roethke, Richard Hugo, and Dylan Thomas in her poem "Dancing with Roethke."
- Shin Yu Pai
Charting change in Beacon Hill with poet Roberto Ascalon

The Bureau of Fearless Ideas (BFI) is one large classroom on the ground floor of the Yesler Terrace complex, a multi-use housing development in Beacon Hill. The walls are packed with language – words, rhymes, and creative affirmations. It's here that Roberto Ascalon, the poet in residence, is a mentor to new poets.
- Libby Denkmann
Gratitude and poetic riffs: 5 tanka poems from Joël Tan

Every day, Joël Barraquiel Tan posts a 5-line tanka poem to his Instagram. Approaching poetry as a daily practice that intermingles with mindfulness, gratitude, and joy, Tan's short poetic riffs give insight into the poet's perspective and his care for the world.
- Shin Yu Pai
Blues for Piper's Creek from poet Rasheena Fountain

Rasheena Fountain's work mainly focuses on Black environmental memory. Her creative practice is rooted in a place-based, ecological, and environmental justice approach, as is reflected in her poem below on Carkeek Park.
- Shin Yu Pai

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Poetry

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