Over the last few years Poetry Northwest has established a tradition of publishing theme based issues. Last spring saw The Science Issue. The year before saw The Carolyn Kizer Issue. Influences, politics, and music were the focus of other themes. Our current issue is The Photography Issue. It’s our largest one ever, clocking in at over 70 pages, and features poems and photos juxtaposed against each other in a way that emphasizes an aspect shared between the two art forms: the act of creating a good poem or a good photo is essentially, to borrow a phrase from Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, “sculpting in time.” They distill singular moments into small sustained emotional eternities that impact readers and viewers over and over again. Their perfectly balanced elements strike upon something that simply wouldn’t exist if everything wasn’t placed just so.

 

Poetry Northwest + Instagramers Seattle + We Are Juxt

Poetry Northwest approached Instagramers Seattle and We Are Juxt to see how people would respond to poems visually and are working together for the rest of the year on a simple contest: monthly we post a poem and you have thirty days to respond to it visually. At the end of the month we pick our favorite snapshot and the winner receives a year long subscription to Poetry Northwest. 

 

July 2013: At the Mouth of the Skagit = #MouthofTheSkagit

The dock: ship mulch in the stick bed,
And I’m knee deep to the reeds.

Long-rot pilings blur under snowy mud
Dredged up at the tide’s lip

And the boat, what’s left of it,
Rests just out of reach.

Those lines come from Frances McCue’s poem “At the Mouth of Skagit,” printed in full below,our June mobile photography challenge. What does it look like to you? We want to see it.

Challenge Rules

From July 3 – July 31 we challenge you to respond to “At the Mouth of the Skagit” how ever you see fit. Any element of the poem is up for interpretation. Here are the particulars:

Instagram: #MouthOfTheSkagit

 

How it Works:

1.Post a photo to Instagram with #MouthOfTheSkagit

2. Poetry Northwest (@poetrynw), Instagramers Seattle, & We Are Juxt will pick the winner who will receive a year long subscription (2 issues) to Poetry Northwest.

3. Submit as often as you want.

4. Photos must be posted to Instagram to #MouthOfTheSkagit in order to be considered.

5. Photos must be posted between July 3 and July 31, 2013. Any photos posted after the close of the challenge will not be considered.

6. Poetry Northwest, Instagramers Seattle, & We Are Juxt reserve the right to remove any photo deemed inappropriate for any reason.

 

At the Mouth of the Skagit

by FRANCES McCUE

The dock: ship mulch in the stick bed,
And I’m knee deep to the reeds.

Long-rot pilings blur under snowy mud
Dredged up at the tide’s lip

And the boat, what’s left of it,
Rests just out of reach. Even the shed

Tilts with wet and the sea-line
Trips against the net of trees.

Dark the river carves between us,
Brackish the flat slough.

Gulp-heaves of fire once blew
And smoldered here, confounding

Mist. Oh! The fire happened
Long ago? Well, fog reenacts

The burn and leaves hunger
Through the simple white shell

Of a tree. The core is here. I’m reaching
Across the stones. See me over here?

Where goes the land’s curve
The heart will follow—down slant

From the mountain’s ribs.
Tinder-lit and timber stripped

Of all the bark. Nothing fits. The River
Is sinking, wood clenched against

The wilds, all wet, never drying.