Selected Poems: Alaska & Northwest

By Richard Harris

Original poems by Richard Lee "Dick" Harris offering impressions and memories of Alaska and Washington State, and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard Harris
• Release date: Mar 23, 2013
• ISBN: 9781612240039

Richard Harris

Richard Lee “Dick” Harris grew up in log cabins without electricity, indoor plumbing, or running water deep in the North Cascade Mountains of Washington State. As an adult he worked as a teacher, psychologist, and college administrator, mostly in Washington, while raising his three children. A lifelong writer, he turned to poetry after retiring from professional life. Through years of adventure travel and family connections he has gained a strong sense of place from the northwestern edge of the continent—Washington, Alaska, and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. He published his first book, Reimagine: Poems, 1993-2009 in 2010, at age 76. Dick lives with his artist wife Helen in Bellingham, Washington.

Book preview

Preface

Alaska

Spring & Summer

A thousand miles north…

Eye of the Raven

Sunday Morning on Berners Bay

Distant Messages

Arctic White

Fields of Enchantment

Sarah Alexandra

September–October

End-of-the-Trail

An Alaskan Autumn Passes

Forest Path

Anthem for The-People

Winnowing Wind

Will We Dance and Be Free?

Western Canada

Alberta

Dancing Place

The Commute

Sanctuary on the Saskatchewan

Cousins’ Last Reunion

Advent to Spring

British Columbia

Where the Silent River Bends

Boreal Matriarch

Jasper National Park

Washington State

Spring

Born in ice melts and trickling creeks…

Over West Bakerview Bridge

Wetland Spring

Great Blue Heron

The Ferryman

Ducking Spray

Never Been in a Canoe

Backwater Pool

How This Eagle Came To Be

Horn of the Ram

Devil’s Club Walking Stick

Lesson in Bigotry

Early Dusk

Last Fielder

Memorial Day

Summer

At the Lake

Serenity

Farm Team

Paint Roses For Me Today

Summer Shower

Candescence

Words in Silence Speak

There Breaks an August Day

Autumn

Chrysanthemum Days

The Dreary Season

Seized by Beauty

Voices Haunt my Valley

Mists of Autumn

Lake Crescent

Eight Bells Toll

Winter

Signs of Winter

Old Rose

Eagle Feathers and Rainbow

From Rockport Bridge

Chak-Chak, the Skagit Bald Eagle

Winter Chores During WWII

In the season of advent, in the days of long nights…

So To Speak…

Truth in Silence

Academician

Vociferant Pillars

Shadows

Author's Note

Preface

When our children were in their teens and my wife and I began traveling farther than the grocery store, we told each other that we’ll travel now, noting our experiences, no matter how ordinary they may seem at the moment, because someday when we aren't able, we'll have these memories. Alaska & Northwest is a selection of the more significant and unique experiences in Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia and Washington State, transcribed as poems

We frequently combined family visits with pleasure, taking advantage of as many sights as our resources allowed. Some of the poems in this collection travel back into my teen years during World War Two in the North Cascades Mountains of Washington State.

For ease of reading, backstories and clarification notes accompany the appropriate poem rather than appearing as notes in the back of the book.

These poems have primarily circulated among local readers. Now, I want to share these ordinary, yet unique experiences with you.

Some of these selections have previously appeared in:

Gillilam, Mary Elizabeth and Norman L. Green, eds, Clover: A Literary Rag Bellingham,

Washington: The Independent Writers Studio, Summer, 1012.

The Journal ofthe Whatcom County Historical Society, Bellingham, WA: December 2012.

Oberon Poetry Magazine. St. James, NY: Oberon