Email: mahalo5@comcast.net

D. Jayne McPherson, Founder, Haiku In The Marin Art & Garden Center; Event Assistant & Former Board Member for Marin Poetry Center; Former Editor of Sand & Salt Water Anthology of Marin County High School Poets.  Jayne graduated from CMU & SFSU Creative Writing Programs and studied with Lucille Clifton, Galway Kinnell, Sharon Olds, and Brenda Hillman at the Community of Writers. She was a Writing Workshop Facilitator for the Russian River Writers Guild & Clive Matson author, of Let The Crazy Child Write.  Her book, Orphan At The Well was produced as a result of her sister dying, subsequent cocooning to Marin County.  Writings have appeared in Bay Area Generations, Corners of the Mouth Anthology of California Poets, Carnegie-Mellon Magazine, Spillway, Modern Haiku, etc.

We’re looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help us craft an engaging, informative, and fun community!

Email your resume to webmaster@marinpoetrycenter.org 

See our team: https://marinpoetrycenter.org/about-us/

See all events: https://marinpoetrycenter.org/events/

Thursday, January 22nd, 2026, Kim Addonizio |  6:30- 8:00 pm | Location: Mill Valley Public Library (Creekside Room) | 375 Throckmorton Ave, Mill Valley, CA 94941

Thursday, February 5th, 2026, Kim Shuck & Bruce Isaacson |  6:30- 8:00 pm | Location: Mill Valley Public Library (Creekside Room) | 375 Throckmorton Ave, Mill Valley, CA 94941

Thursday, March 5th, 2026, John Fox & Meredith Heller |  6:30- 8:00 pm | Location: Mill Valley Public Library (Creekside Room) | 375 Throckmorton Ave, Mill Valley, CA 94941

Thursday, April 2nd, 2026, Joan Baranow, Catharine Clark-Sayles & Wendy Williams |  6:30- 8:00 pm | Location: Mill Valley Public Library (Creekside Room) | 375 Throckmorton Ave, Mill Valley, CA 94941

Thursday, May 7th, 2026, Rebecca Foust, Lucille Lang Day & Elizabeth Herron May  |  6:30- 8:00 pm | Location: Mill Valley Public Library (Creekside Room) | 375 Throckmorton Ave, Mill Valley, CA 94941

Experience the poems: https://links.bloombergconnects.org/6Ggw/rsksasni

Learn more about the exhibition: https://lifeonart.org/visions-of-hope

I mourn you already
Even though now you are healthy
with few enough wrinkles to count on one
hand that holds me like a prized possession
Time will pass like the changing tide
that washes away to reveal new life
And soon you will too
Soon our paths will diverge and I won't know you as I once did
I won't know the addictive sound of your laugh or
the warming sight of your smile that could illuminate
every dark place I’ve ever been stuck in
Guilt courses deep through my veins for
every time I yelled at you to minimize my pain
And regret takes hold when I realize that I can’t reverse
the clock, can’t help that you will only grow old
I am in the moment but I am also watching,
from some point in the future
Mourning you already

Honorable Mention: Emma Lawson
San Rafael High School

I can feel the quiet.
palpable in my hand
like a shot sparrow, heavy
and feathered
with the breath of 4 a.m.

it’s a palmful of gold:
valued and shiny and bright and
worthless in all ways but
maybe spiritual.

should it be buried?
stuffed and made anew?
wrapped in white linen?
no. it should be held
like another hand
and loved.

Honorable Mention: Anaya Ertz
Marin Academy

You are a spider on my window.
Hidden in the daylight.
Everyone sees, everyone knows,
You're a poisonous little creature.
Plain-sight killer; hurtful but weak.
I've always wondered why,
What the point of you is.

And I still think about you and
how I see a life as a stick-to web.
Plainly, I could love you. But
When I look in the mirror,
I see a paralyzed poet,
Who never knew how to write it down.
You don't care as long as I’m distant.

I digress you,
Kissing the dirt because
It somewhat tastes the same.
You're a root in my side that
I just can't pull out.
Since it was the first and
Only ever there.

You left me in a mean city. But
I saw you today when I thought
That I would never again.
With your old haircut and venom skin,
And like an aged house cat I return
To you and your rum twin.
I'll always be a drinker when you're in town.

You are the painful part of nostalgia.
Toxic and rashy cobweb promises,
Living in the back corner of my mind. But
I still can't hate you.
After all this time, I'm still scared of bugs;
I can't bring myself to kill them.

You only think about your next meal.
The next plump plastic fool to feed you.
I saw you today when I thought
That I never would again.
And you didn't even look me in the eye. But
I watched you crawl and slink.

All my life I've been heart drop alone,
And I pray that one day
I'll be given the mercy I gave you.
Letting you live freely through my
Damp-wet brain. Letting you breathe
On my window, plain-sight killer.

Honorable Mention: Ethan Ramm
Marin School of the Arts

The purple moon sits
above my reaching hand.
I grab it and hold on.
My shy voice sings.
The bowl of the sky tastes
of hungry clouds
with the rain to wash it down.
Sixteen rows of oak trees grow.
A coyote of time with poised paws
waits in empty space.
I wish we could meet again
before the world drops off.

Honorable Mention: Ava Isabelle
Tamalpais High School