Clinton poet publishes fourth collection at 85

Published 4:00 pm Wednesday, April 11, 2007

A carved wood sign on poet Peter Lawlor’s cottage in Clinton reads “Tusitala.” The word means “teller of tales,” which is an apt name for the home of the man some have called Whidbey Island’s poet laureate.

Lawlor will read from his fourth and most recent collection of poems, “Reeds of Brass,” at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 14 in The Front Room at the Bayview Cash Store. The poet will be accompanied by two other islanders — guest poet Joni Takanikos and violinist Talia Toni Marcus.

Lawlor is a native of New Zealand and said he started writing poetry as a young man after he joined the merchant marines and set sail to a life of travel and adventure.

Now, at 85, after a life at sea, several wars, a marriage and three children, Lawlor said his poetry has evolved and his life is a fairly simple one.

“I’m not complaining anymore,” he said. “I am much more optimistic and I’m free to write all the time. I don’t need a lot.”

The sea life plays an integral part in the imagery of the poems, and one can see why Lawlor settled finally by the water. Lawlor is what you might call a “salty” character, looking as if he just stepped off a schooner perhaps. Dressed in a Navy blue pea coat with a shock of wavy white hair, he can often be seen strolling along Cascade Beach near his cottage with his dog Brie, gathering images for his poems.

From the opening lines of his poem “Sea Borne,” he writes:

Out along the sea before my house

a log came floating by upon the tide

From what quiet forest had it come?

All the poems in “Reeds of Brass” are datelined, as many of them focus on Lawlor’s favorite places including Scotland, New Zealand and the Puget Sound, especially Whidbey Island. He uses the similarities in each place to anchor the ride of his emotional life.

With a contemplative and romantic flair Lawlor records his surroundings like an explorer navigating familiar waters. Life on or near the water reverberates in these poems and everyday encounters are championed by the poet who writes about sailors, coffeehouse characters, motorcycle riders, gardening and even an unrequited love of his youth.

Aging and death are subjects Lawlor also faces head on and with a certain amount of everyday realism tinged with a wistfulness for experiences come and gone. He dedicates the second part of the collection to his deceased daughter Deborah, with whom he shared a love of music. He looks his own death squarely in the face with his poem “Poets Do Your Gardening.” In it he writes:

I planted this spring a cherry in view

from the room where I might be dying.

It’s poets who plant trees for memories

Counting springs in blossoms bearing fruit,

As if it’s the span of their years.

Lawlor said he still travels about once a year and that Scotland is his favorite destination. He shows no signs of slowing down and said that his next collection will be due out in six years’ time, as all of his poetry books have coincidentally six years between them.

“I’ll be 91 by then,” Lawlor said.

Patricia Duff can be reached at 221-5300 or pduff@southwhidbeyrecord.com.