Tualatin Historical Society to host 2nd Annual Arbor Day Poetry Contest

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It’s rhyme time again. The contest is part of the city’s Arbor Month celebration in April. All participants will earn an annual membership to the Tualatin Historical Society with special gifts for the winners. Your poem should celebrate the spirit of Arbor Month in Tualatin and be submitted by Friday, March 10. All poems will be posted to our web page and permanently placed into the Historical Society archives.

Judges will evaluate poems based on their ability to entertain as well as their technical excellence. This year’s judges are: Loyce Martinazzi, author, playwright, and Historical Society co-founder; Cindy Dyson, local author and host of the Poems by Heart podcast; and Tom Swearingen, Tualatin’s very own “Oregon Cowboy Poet” who is the 2022 and 2019 International Western Music Association Male Poet of the Year. 

Winners will be invited to read their entries during an April 5th program at the Heritage Center which will also feature City Parks Director, Ross Hoover discussing the future of Tualatin Parks. Last year’s winners included: 1st Place “An Arbor Day Poem” by Trish Brisbois; 2nd Place “The Mother Tree” by Karen Riley; 3rd Place (tie) “A Tree in Tualatin” by Molly Skeen; 3rd Place (tie) “The Wedding Tree” by Cathy Stockwell.

To submit your entry, email:
ask@tualatinhistory.org.

“Arbor Day Poem” 

I count my days by you. 

Bare winter branches
with soft nubs
forming into leaves yet to be and
new blossoms
that color my view ever so gently,
pink and white.

As you spread your spring splendor
the days meander on until
I suddenly realize
everywhere I turn
is a new shade of green;
chartreuse, lemon-lime, and emerald,
providing shelter from the warming sun.

My days gently blend into fall
with a brilliant explosion of color;
a trickle of golden yellow at first,
expanding into orange, burnt umber, 
scarlet and burgundy red, 
blazing into the sky.

Until the crispness of autumn,
with its blustery winds,
spreads your leaves
in swirling spirals 
to cover the ground 
beneath my feet.
And your bare winter branches
count my days once more.

– Trish Brisbois, 2022 1st Place Winne