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Willawaw Journal is an online magazine for poetry and art. After eight years and 20 issues, the editor is retiring the journal. The archives will remain accessible until March of 2026. Many thanks to the artists and writers who made this journal possible!
Submissions Closed
For the Spring 2025 issue of Willawaw, we looked at an ekphrastic poem as prompt. Of course general submissions are always welcome. This is the last issue of Willawaw for the time being. Updates when available.
Poet Laureate Poem Prompt with Erica Goss—Spring 2025
Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City, 1885
after the painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner
A shadow stretches
from dune to dune,
cool valley where
tufts of grass
lean towards the ocean.
Out to sea, sails flutter like
the wings of a cabbage moth
I saw this morning in my garden,
searching for a place to lay
a last clutch of eggs
before winter closes in.
So often I have felt
like those shrubs on the beach,
bent sideways from
some elemental force,
its life-changing weight
pressing me into a new shape,
as if my heart were an object
to be molded by wind.
I offer myself as raw material,
a last chance at transformation
before the pale half-disc of sun sets
and that cloud spreads
across the sky.
First published in Two Hawks Quarterly, Spring 2024
The Editor
Rachel Barton is a poet, teacher, writing coach, and editor. She earned a B.A. in English from West Virginia University where she also pursued graduate studies in the art of printmaking. Drawn to Alaska by an older sister, she continued to pull lithographs at the Visual Arts Center until her new family began to manifest. From there, she dove into clay and watercolor. Upon her arrival in the Northwest 25 years later, she earned a Masters in Teaching from Western Oregon University. It was while teaching that she became acquainted with the Oregon Writing Project where she resumed her writing life.
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