Remembering When Once Upon a Garden Tied for Second Place at Lakewold Gardens’ Poetry in the Gardens 2023
When an email titled “Congratulations from Lakewold Gardens” landed in my inbox in 2023, I froze. My poem, “Once Upon a Garden, Green and Gold,” had tied for second place in the 2023 Poetry in the Gardens contest—Lakewold’s annual celebration where verses hide among blossoms and birdsong along the winding paths of Lakewood, Washington.
Lakewold Gardens hosted a quiet celebration first – at which poets gathered to record their poems. All season long, visitors could pause beneath maples and hellebores, scan a tiny QR code, and hear my words mingle with breeze and birds—a surreal, sacred moment I’ll never forget.
Sharing the honor with a fellow writer from our local writing community made the tie even sweeter. Although illness kept me from the larger celebration, the intimate recording session, poets swapping stories and rainy day inspiration, felt like its own garden party.
Lakewold refreshes the installation each year, so new poems now flourish where mine once grew. I love that the garden continues to plant fresh voices, inviting guests to discover wonder season after season. If you visit, be sure to scan the current QR codes and let the words guide your wanderings.
Winning second place reminded me that poetry, like a garden, thrives when nurtured with hope and shared freely. Thank you, Lakewold Gardens, for giving my poem a place to bloom.
(Hear the poem and learn more on the official page here.)
“Once Upon a Garden, Green and Gold” will be part of my upcoming Kickstarter Campaign collection To Speak: Poems of Inspired Courage, Wild Grace, and Sacred Ordinary.
To find out more about that Kickstarter Campaign, sign up for notifications on launch HERE.