statement of place: tammy robacker

Currently, I live, work, and write in Washington State and have called it home since I moved here at twelve years old. My connection to the natural realm and climactic nuances of this area in the south Sound is a constant source for inspiration and poetry. The ever-present rain; the locality and accessibility of the Puget Sound; the epic, oceanic beachheads; the damp, lush landscapes; and green, rustic foliage are a constant mirroring of my own meandering poet’s mind and my observant, deep, and concerned moods that change like the weather. For me, living in Washington is like looking into a lake every day. You see yourself reflected back, but it’s always through the fluid, changing water.

owen beach aubade

by tammy robacker


— For Tim
 

Much like the greatest sea treasures
we set out to comb, you arrive to me
broken. An old green wine bottle that
no longer remembers what filled it before
or how its vintage was spoken; it chooses now
to be repurposed. To be tossed in tide violence.
To be knocked silly by indifference. To be left
alone. Then, woken up polished as a trinket.
Divined amidst wet rockweed and foul wrack
and renamed mine and fit to my hand.
It is much like love at our middle age,
how the turned out jellyfish does not amaze us
because it was once beautiful or swam. We recognize it
now because it stings. Because high tide pulled out
hours ago, and there it shines. Alive and bubbling
on the pebbled beach. That moony clear bell
still continues to beat, plump and smooth
as a young heart, braving the brackish shore.