I am so pleased to be included in Lakewold Garden’s 2025 Poetry in the Gardens. Each year, Lakewold invites local poets to submit original poems to the Winter Garden Poetry competition. My poem, “An Edible Garden” was accepted and is now installed in the Garden’s self-guided tour. You can listen to the collection of 10 poems on the website as well.

Between March and through the end of summer, you can listen to the poetry as you wander the gardens. Watch for the signs and scan the QR codes with your phone. Its an absolutely stunning historic venue in south Tacoma. By chance, I’m also booked for a wedding at Lakewold Gardens in May!

An Edible Garden

         for my children,
in response to words lost from the Oxford English Junior Dictionary

The hearts of children
Eat acorns at recess
Taste yellow willow tendrils
Dropped from a shattering wind
Caterpillar says the boy

As time no longer moves
Like it used to               a broken line, a wheel
Modern scholars have omitted moss, kingfisher and
Blackberry from the youth dictionary

Yet tulips break red beaks
As April enters the yard
Are flowers ever green? Asks the girl
Hellebore says the mother, remember when
We saw burgundy ones in the garden down the street?

Taking note:                 the broken flow
Words meant to be of use –
Sea otter, lichen, clover

Bluebells are up
Cheshire moon on the rise    casting spells in springtime

Collected shells, feathers, stones beneath the Douglas fir
Where violets grow               edible petals they know
Eaten almost in desperation, searching for the sweetness
They seek there
Like bees finding pollen
A psalm, a prayer