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Alice Derry On Watching Salmon And "Finding The Poem"

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Red Hen Press

Many Pacific Northwest artists feel compelled to respond to the drama of the salmon fighting their way upstream to spawn. In "Finding the Poem," Port Angeles poet Alice Derry sees in the salmon's efforts a parallel with the way we learn to accommodate each other in a long marriage — and how often it is loss that teaches us, finally, how to do it.

"Finding the Poem" is part of Derry's fourth collection of poetry, "Tremolo" (Red Hen Press, 2012).

Her third collection, "Strangers to Their Courage" (Louisiana State University Press, 2001), was a finalist for the 2002 Washington Book Award. "Stages of Twilight" (Breitenbush, 1986), was chosen by Raymond Carver for the King County Publication Award. Derry recently retired from Peninsula College in Port Angeles, where she co-directed the Foothills Writers’ Series since 1980.

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