*Afterthought #77—Ferry Haiku

My “thing for ferries” surged again this month when the Summer 2018 Washington State Ferries Schedule arrived on the vessels (and online). The state agency frequently sponsors contests for artwork on the schedule cover, and the 2018 search was for a haiku. This short, Japanese verse form is ideal for the space on the schedule cover, and I was delighted there would be such a poem this year. With a print run of over 985,000 schedules, selected art is seen by loads of people.

This wasn’t a typical writing competition, though. Entrants were to post submissions to @wsferries on Twitter so they could be reviewed by Washington State Poet Laureate Claudia Castro Luna. She narrowed the field to three submissions; the final selection was made via Twitter, #WSFHaiku.

The talented winner? Lisa Salisbury from Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, WA.

The dramatic black-and-white photo on the cover, taken by Douglas Treuting, is of Wasp Passage off Shaw Island.

 

 

I had the pleasure of meeting Lisa at the recent Chuckanut Writers Conference and to congratulate her in person. She’s a Friday Harbor School librarian with over twenty years of experience in education. And clearly, she’s a fine poet, too. I told Lisa about my upcoming stint as Writer-in-Residence on the Interisland Ferry, and I can imagine some collaboration with her in the future. I’m sure we’ll talk about it when we schedule a time to get together—on the ferry!

Congratulations Lisa and Douglas, and thanks, Washington State Ferries.

 

*Afterthoughts are my blog version of a practice followed in some Quaker meetings. After meeting for worship ends, people continue in silence for a few more minutes during which they’re invited to share thoughts or reflect on the morning’s worship. I’ve adopted the form here for last-day-of-the-month brief reflections on headlines, quotes, books, previous posts, maybe even bumper stickers.