PORT ANGELES — When Jaiden Dokken learned in late February that they had been selected Clallam County’s inaugural poet laureate, the Sequim artist did not wait until the role’s official start date of April 1 to start thinking about a plan for engaging the community through poetry.
Dokken did what they usually does: jump in and get busy.
By the time Dokken was inaugurated Tuesday at the Port Angeles Library, the headquarters of the North Olympic Library System (NOLS), Dokken had already planned a Grow Your Poetry event in Sequim, kicked off a system-wide poetry reading challenge and was finalizing plans for a open mic poetry night in Sekiu.
“My goal is to read my poetry, read everyone else’s poetry and reach out to the farthest reaches of our county,” said Dokken, whose pronouns are they/them.
The 2012 Sequim High School graduate read four of their own works, including “Before Things Got Bad” and “Spring 2023” for an audience of about 60.
The two-year poet laureate appointment requires Dokken to host two events each month — other than that, Dokken has freedom to develop events and activities that fulfill the mission of connecting the community through poetry.
Public engagement is central to the program, said Clallam County Commissioner Mark Ozias, who had reached out to NOLS in late 2021 with an idea to create a poet laureate position after reading about another county that had done something similar.
“I was really intrigued,” Ozias said. “There is so much divisiveness now, and [the commissioners] have been looking around for starting something around the common ground that we all share.”
The commissioners committed $5,000 a year for the two-year poet laureate appointment out of the county’s general fund. The objective is for the program to generate enough interest to attract other partners to generate support.
“Hopefully after two years, between the county, the library and other organizations, we’ll be able to sustain and grow it,” Ozias said.
NOLS youth services librarian Clair Dunlap said people and organizations began calling the library asking how they could work with the county poet laureate immediately after Dokken’s name was announced in March.
Tapping each of the four libraries’ deep roots in their communities was a great advantage in launching the poet laureate program and generating interest in it, Dunlap said.
“They’re a big hub,” Dunlap said. “They are going to help us get Jaiden into our communities.”
Dokken said they was excited by the challenge of developing a program from the ground up that would appeal to those in communities across Clallam County. Meeting locals “where they are at” — a bar, a library, a school or a community center — and encourage them to share experiences, stories and imagery were good ways of showing that poetry’s greatest strength was its openness to all kinds of people and interpretation, Dokken said.
“There are so many different kinds of poetry, so many diverse kinds of works,” Dokken said.
Dokken sells a wide range of artistic output of ceramics, prints and illustrations at Pacific Pantry and other local venues. Dokken is also a reader and editor at Perennial Press, which got the poet through a tough period of writer’s block.
Among Dokken’s own goals as poet laureate were writing more and improving reading work in public.
“I would like to get better performance-wise,” Dokken said. “This was the biggest crowd I’d ever read in front of. At the next one I hope I’m a little more relaxed.”
Poet Laureate events and activities are free and open to all ages. These events have been scheduled so far.
• Poetry Reading Challenge: Complete a list of 12 poetry-related tasks, such as reading a poem by a Clallam County poet or reading a poem out loud to someone. Submit the list at any NOLS library or email to Dokken at poetlaureate@nols.org. The contest ends May 1. Completed entries will be entered in a raffle for prizes. Entries can be found at all NOLS branches or printed out here tinyurl.com/2p8n768m.
• Grow Your Poetry workshop: Attendees will write poetry on wildlife seed paper that can then be planted, April 27, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., Locally Known Cowork Space, 112 W. Washington St., Sequim.
• Open mic poetry night: Date and time TBD. Sekiu Community Center, 42 Rice St.
• Also, the NOLS in partnership with Olympic National Park Poetry is offering the ninth season of Poetry Walks through May 31. Poems are posted on signs along five trails: Hall of Mosses Trail; Living Forest Trail; Madison Falls Trail; Peabody Creek Trail; and the Spruce Railroad Trail. For more information, go to www.nols.org/poetry-walks.
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Paula Hunt can be reached at paula.hunt@soundpublishing.com.
