March 2022 HLCC Mtg: with readings from Ed Harkness

Ed Harkness gave some amazing poetry readings over Zoom to the Haller Lake Community Club.  He said a little about and read the following poems:

From Saying the Necessary
  "Putting Things By"
  "Saying the Necessary" 

From Beautiful Passing Lives
  "Out of the Blue"
  "The Day the War Began"
    (From the beginning of the 1st Iraq War, dedicated to Ukraine)
  "Jock Itch"
From The Law of the Unforeseen
  (The cover and back are paintings by Doris Harkness)
  "Great Apes at the Zoo"
  "Little Coffee"
    (Most of his poems are free verse.  This is a sonnet ("little song"), Shakespearian form)
  "Tying a Tie"
    (About his father, Harry Harkness, who was president of HLCC 1965-7)
  "Potatoes"
    (Also about Harry Harkness)
    (Serendipitous rhyme of "always" with "mayonnaise")

Unpublished:

  "At the Curling Rink"
    (Also about HH, who curled at the nearby Granite Curling Club.)
  "Italian Prune"
  "Holding the New Baby I Feel the Featherweight of my Death"
    (Poem dedicated to his son Devin, daughter-in-law Lindsey, and grandson Cosmo, who were in attendance)

He mentioned his early connection to the HLCC: His mother, Doris, founded a cooperative preschool there, where he was a student.

Ed then answered questions and graciously accepted praise from the audience.

Ed Harkness grew up about four blocks south of the Haller Lake Community Club. In fact, his mother, Doris Harkness, took him to his first pre-school classes at the HLCC, where she was a member of a pioneering parent-toddler co-op. After successfully pedaling and finger-painting his way through pre-school, Ed graduated from Ingraham High, later earned his B.A. in English at the University of Washington, and from there traveled to Missoula, Montana, where he received his Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing in 1973.

Ed is the author of three full-length poetry collections: Saying the Necessary (2000), Beautiful Passing Lives (2010), and most recently, The Law of the Unforeseen (2018, Pleasure Boat Studio Press). You can find some of Ed's recent publications in the following online journals: Valparasio Review, Sisyphus Review, Triggerfish Critical Review, Bracken Magazine and Under a Warm Green Linden. His chapbook, Ice Children, was published by Split Lip Press in 2014. To hear Ed read “Tying a Tie” and “Airborne,” the two winning poems of Terrain.org’s 8th Annual Contest in Poetry (2018), go to https://www.terrain.org/2018/poetry/edward-harkness-2/.

After a 32 year teaching career, Ed retired from Shoreline Community College in 2013 and given the fancy title of Professor Emeritus of English. He and his wife, Linda, live in Shoreline.