Poetry road trip

It has been more than eight years since we mentioned William Stafford’s poetry plaques on the North Cascades National Scenic Highway, so we were happy to see that Roger Gilman has brought some new attention to the subject in “A Mountain Poetry Pilgrimage” in Adventures Northwest Magazine. (Lushly illustrated in full color, Adventures Northwest is a free quarterly “dedicated to the exploration and appreciation of the magnificent landscapes of Cascadia.”)

William Stafford was the 20th Poet Laureate of the United States. In the new summer issue of Adventures Northwest, Gilman, who is the magazine’s poetry editor, offers a description of William Stafford’s “Methow Valley Poems” on plaques at road stops along highway WA 20 thru North Cascades National Park (at Washington Pass and Mazama) and following highway WA 153 south from Winthrop and Twisp to McFarland Creek and Pateros at the confluence of the Methow River and the Columbia.

The article, which features four of his poems, identifies the location of seven of Stafford’s site-specific poems and also tells the story of how the poems and plaques came to be commissioned and placed along this scenic route.

Just in time for summer road trips complete with peaked mountains, deep valleys, rushing rivers, mountain goats, and rainbow trout, Gilman’s article can be viewed online or, better yet, in the glossy edition available free in hundreds of locations in Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia.

In a related note, Kim Stafford, the son of William Stafford and a past Poet Laureate of Oregon, will conduct a two-hour writing workshop and a poetry reading from his latest collection, As the Sky Begins to Change, both on Monday, June 10, 2024, at Village Books.

Special thanks to Roger Gilman for the article and the update.

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Plaque at Washington Pass Overlook. Photo by John D’Onofrio.