Oregon150

Floating Timeshare

Evelyn Alford
Cheshire, Oregon

by Evelyn Alford
Cheshire, OR
Last visit, guided by previous experience,
we gambled on sunshine and won:
unending blue above Mother Pacific
in one of her most placid moods.
It warmed our hearts as well as our skins.
This visit?
Taking potluck, we found Mom white and foaming with fury,
gnashing her teeth on rocks,
gnawing on every cape that stood in her path.
Debarking massive [...]

5th Generation Oregonian

Jennifer Larson
Grants Pass

by Jennifer Larson
Springfield, OR
I’m a 5th generation Oregonian and proud of it! I’ll never forget that Christmas day when all 5 generations were able to have our photo taken. Grammy was so proud to have her daughters, grand-daughter and great-grand daughter all together that year. When I was 19 and freshly married we [...]

Dabbling

Cheryl Garrett
Peter Iredale Beach, Warrenton, Or

by Cheryl Garrett
Warrenton, OR
come dabble your toes in the water with me,
at the beach,at the beach, by the open sea.
if your heart is weary and your soul is torn,
then upon the tides let your pain be borne.
come wash away the sorrow you feel,
because only then can you know it’s real.
if you have any doubts, the [...]

My Oregon

Dorothy Heath
Marshfield & Coos Bay

Dorothy Heath
Ocean Ridge Retirement Community
Coos Bay, Oregon
For 90 years, I’ve lived in Oregon and called it home. May 28, 1918 was the special day when I was born on south Sixth Street in Marshfield. My plan was to continue spending the rest of my life there but an unexpected operation caused me to change my [...]

We Like Being a Green State

Andrea Thoennes
Broadway Middle School
Seaside, Oregon
The rain is falling hard and I wish that I could be in the hot Caribbean, but then I realize where I live is just fine. The feeling of the ocean breeze, the bird’s comely flying above, and me breathing in the fresh air that comes from the Oregon coast. I [...]