Printed Matter Vancouver Publishers Christopher Luna and Toni Partington are proud to announce the winners of the Poetry Moves Contest, sponsored by Printed Matter Vancouver, C-Tran, and Arts of Clark County:

Neil Aitken

Tiffany Burba-Schramm

Diane Cammer

Sherri H. Hoffman

Erin Iwata

Tim Klein

Jennifer Pratt-Walter

Karen Read

Below are the winning poems, which will appear on C-Tran buses beginning in January. Partington and Luna will also have one poem each on the buses. We would like to thank everyone who submitted to the contest. We are also very grateful to Karen Madsen of  Arts of Clark County, Graphic Designer Cameron Suttles, and Melissa York and Ronda Peck of C-Tran for their hard work and support.

There will be a reading at the Food Court at the Westfield Shopping Mall in Vancouver, WA at 1pm on Sunday, December 13 to celebrate the winners.

We could not be more proud of our fellow poets. We can’t wait to see these poems on the buses.

Excerpt from “Extern”
By Neil Aitken, Vancouver, WA

Sometimes I dream of the ghost of a bird
its eyes dark like mine
asleep in the fold of a tree
its shadow the shape of a harp.

Everything Settles
By Tiffany Burba-Schramm, Vancouver, WA

The frost settles upon the ground.
Snow settles upon the limbs of trees.
The ceiling in my house settles; creates small cracks.
The floor creaks and settles the weight of dogs approaching.
We settle, let the weight of the world crack our ambitions.
We let others’ harsh words and criticisms drape us
like settled winter fog.

We could fly
By Diane M. Cammer, Vancouver, WA

yet we stand, feet bound to ground
arms spread wide, wings in
another world, another time
waiting for wind, an updraft
when all that’s required
is a single bold step into the unknown.

Pilgrimage, 1988
By Sherri H. Hoffman, Vancouver, WA

Start at Dodger Stadium, Chavez Ravine, most perfect field. Onward to Candlestick, Wrigley, Three Rivers, Shea. Until Cooperstown, Holiest of Holies. Blessed with field grit rubbed into our salted skins, we’d say the sacred names. Koufax. Drysdale. Marichal. Campanella from the Brooklyn years. Jackie Robinson, born the same day as our Grandma Wildish. And Pee Wee Reese, who kept the faith, refusing to sign the petition to ban Robinson for being black. The game transcendent.

Excerpt from “Ours”
By Erin Iwata, Ridgefield, WA

I have to believe that something of seventeen still lingers
though she pains me with her adolescent optimism
I return, hoping she wasn’t wrong
that there is beauty in the stacked stones along the path
that there is a path indeed
mountains to be scaled and conquered
that the world is still ours

Counterpart
By Tim Klein, Vancouver, WA

At this very moment
someone
somewhere
is doing
the very same thing you are doing
for the very same reason.

From GHOST TOWN, USA
By Clark County Poet Laureate Christopher Luna

the dirt beneath
Bonita’s fingernails
did not discourage him
she was reading a bilingual edition
of Dante’s Inferno
on the 37
and that was more than enough

HONEYCOMB PROPHECY
By Toni Partington, Vancouver, WA

In the residence of your heart
I wish to be a cubicle made of beeswax
translucent, unfiltered, bright with buzz.

Together we will construct a confluence
of resin and lace; a suspension bridge
across hedge thorns and conflict.

Journey
By Jennifer Pratt-Walter, Vancouver, WA

We are the tide’s twin, swimming
with the faithful senses of salmon—
we smell fresh river
from out of the salt, we are
drawn home under moon-watch
for as long as the journey takes.

Fourth Plain Boulevard
By Karen Read, Vancouver, WA

A home for hundreds walking — yet to name
the dreams that rise before they dare to speak.

Colorful signs that fly above — untamed
wave low and high, press forward, reach, and peak.

So often you find only what you seek.

Your power lines of old are not here sown.
They surge beneath this skin of place unknown.