City of Port Townsend Poet Laureate

Poet Laureate Rufina C. Garay with her piece for the Outsiders Street Art Project on the Memorial Field Fence

Rufina C. Garay is Port Townsend’s second Poet Laureate, 2026-2027. Garay is an interdisciplinary poet, artist, and practitioner of Taoist meditative arts in which poetry is a healing practice. She is the founder of “Shattering Glass,” an ever-evolving curation of established and emerging poets from the Olympic Peninsula who amplify social and environmental justice issues. 

A civic poet for the community

The Poet Laureate program was launched in 2023 as a collaboration between the Council Culture and Society Committee and the Port Townsend Arts Commission, in partnership with the Port Townsend Public Library. The Poet Laureate serves the community in ceremonial, educational, and inspirational ways, infusing literary arts into civic dialogue. The Poet Laureate honors the city’s active, creative community, promotes the city’s robust literary arts, and celebrates the written word.

Each term, an open application process will utilize a panel of independent jurors alongside representatives from City Council and the Arts Commission. Read the press release announcing the City's 2026-2027 Poet Laureate here. 

PT POETRY NOOK

Some Notes on the Inaugural Poem from the Poet Laureate

The inaugural 2026 poet laureate poem is a love poem to and for Port Townsend and is also a poem that playfully describes the creative process of poem writing that I experience.

This poem has a touchpoint in an old Garay family story from a time when my Uncle Tony and my father sailed the Philippine islands on lumber routes.

During one particularly bad monsoon season, the wild sea thrashed in non-stop storms, and the ship ran out of food supplies. The crew began to fear for their lives and organized a mutiny.

Uncle Tony lashed his younger brother—my father—to the mast. He then took out the one emergency handgun on the catamaran and shot into the sky when a torrent of flying fish were taken up by swell and landed in the boat. The majority of sailors on the ship were people of faith, and the flood of fish was miracle enough to feed the crew and save the lives of my uncle and my dad—so that they could all reach port.

Padabà is a word in Bicol, the native dialect of my parents. It means “my beloved.”  

Ars Poetica:  Padabà, my beloved, my favorite

This is to say I have been fishing in the sky

for words to land

a pocket poem—

yours to keep, beloved,

to carry you through hard things,

lost at sea,

a grieving swell of unease,

memory that may never turn.

Still…

Hope.

When ways fog

like deadly potion,

don’t drink it in,

swallowing the briny sea

is uncomfortable.

You still have other ways to navigate…

Stargaze.

Wait out the wind

in wonder at the sea’s constancy.

wave and ripple,

black and light,

shimmer, swell,

cold, and quiet.

Seas always return to shore,

finding peace in the space between.

Rest now in the bottom of the boat.

It is not so different than the catamaran of ancestors.

They shine on you,

storm or sun,

begotten one.

Even if taken by typhoon or tsunami,

you are the bridge of light.

The earth sits in your belly,

so eat the falling stars.

When your heart aches for sea change,

lash yourself to the mast.

If you are drowning in rain,

know that sometimes fish fly.

Your mutinous minds will be fed.

I will still scale these flying fish for you.

Remove the grayish-slime

that protects against illness in water.

They will be clean,

and you will have life

though I will mourn them—their sacrifice,

even if poems fall like stars to palms,

or rush like frenzied comets,

even if poems cannot be planted

in place of potholes.

This is to say, I love you, Port Townsend—

potholes, politics, and all.

This is to say padabà, the poem becomes a gift

when you receive nourishment—

until then, it’s just a fish.

Know by heart,

the celestial map of stars.

Two fish are enough for multitudes—

poet and padabà.

- Rufina C. Garay

©2026 Rufina C. Garay. All rights reserved. 

Find out about events from the Poet Laureate on the Creative District Calendar at ptcreativedistrict.org