PORT ANGELES — As the river runs free again, people in these parts are wanting to sing its praises.
And so they’re gathering tonight to offer celebratory words, words and emotions fed by the Elwha, that deep blue-green messenger from the Olympic Mountains.
Tess Gallagher, the internationally known poet from Port Angeles, Lower Elwha Klallam tribal members Monica Charles, Brenda Francis and Suzie Bennett and Makah poet Brandan McCarty are among the writers to appear in Voices of the Elwha, a free reading at 7 p.m. today at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St.
The reading will be in the Raymond Carver Room, a space named for the late writer and Gallagher’s husband who also felt strongly about the Elwha.
Carver’s words are included in a poetry collection Port Angeles’ Indian Voices writing group published last fall, as removal of the Elwha’s two dams began.
Where Thunderbird Rests his Head and Waits for Songs of Return is a chapbook available at the library and at Elwha Gallery & Gift, the shop beside the Elwha Heritage Center at 401 E. First St. It also contains Olympic-inspired poems by Pulitzer Prize winner Gary Snyder, Tim McNulty, Kate Reavey and Alice Derry.
Gallagher, McNulty and other local poets gave a reading last September to herald the river’s return to its free-flowing state.
And now, the giant Elwha River restoration project, originally authorized by Congress in 1992, has turned two major corners.
Elwha Dam already has been brought down, and the Glines Canyon Dam upstream is expected to be gone by next year.
Salmon, the harbingers of river health, have been seen swimming in waters the dams blocked for nearly 100 years.
“September was hope, and June is realization,” Derry said last week, “with one dam down and the other well ahead of schedule . . . we are so happy to be this far along.
“At this reading,” she added, “we are again celebrating our connection to a river that sustains us.”
Both Derry and Reavey helped start the Indian Voices writing group, an intertribal gathering of poets and short story writers who meet at the Elwha Heritage Center.
Tonight’s gathering “should be really fun,” added Reavey.
She invites library visitors to write their own poems and reminiscences about the river.
Pencils, paper and a box are provided as part of River Story, the library’s series of Elwha-related events running through Sept. 8. Poets can sign their work or not, Reavey said.
“We may read a couple of poems from the box,” she added, either tonight or at a later poetry event.
Together, all of these poets create “a wonderfully diverse chorus of voices,” said Margaret Jakubcin, the North Olympic Library System assistant director who helped orchestrate River Story.
To see a complete schedule of the series’ free concerts, displays and other programs, visit www.NOLS.org or phone the Port Angeles Library at 360-417-8500.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.