Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014 - Mason County Journal - Page A-19
Poet Dean Olson, a Skokomish Valley native and 1959 graduate of
a new poetw collection, 'Off the Clock.' .
Journal photo by Gordon Weeks
Shelton High School, has released
MY FATHER
By Dean Olson
My father was a common man,
a miner, logger, father of four sons,
a daughter.
There was a calmness, a solitude about him.
He spoke little, yet saw
all things that needed seeing,
and though he never spoke of love
I felt selected standing next to him,
so well made by bed of certainty.
My father was a short bald man
with heavy shoulders and strong hands.
He rose early and sometimes took his sons
to split winter wood or hunt winter food.
We watched and wanted to walk near him
as he ripened with age.
Though he has been set free
I sit beside myfather now as if in the
shade
of a giant willow. We touch for the first
time
as the other world comes into mine.
He teaches the silence of simply doing,
the delicious taste of patience.
• This poem was used with permis-
sion by the author.
Shetton High alum
reflects, releases
10th book of poetry
BY GORDON WEEKS
gordon@masoncoUnty com
Skokomish Val]ey native Dean
Olson begins poems by hand in
small notebooks, usually in the
evenings and often with wine, in
his television-free Olympia apart-
ment.
The Shelton High School gradu-
ate, who turned 76 last week, re-
cently released his 10th collection
of poems, "Off the Clock." It's his
third book with the McKinleyville,
California, publishing company
Fifthlan Pr~s~.
The poems in "Off the Clock" ex-
plore nature and the seasons, ag-
ing, boatmg, love, family and grati,
tude. The book is available at Sage
Books in Shelton, Orca Books in
Olympm anal at Amazon.com.
Some of his works focus "on
grow r g up,prior in the Skokomish
Vall4y. Olson remembers his faro-
ily gathering to listen to the radio
in the poem "Cheap Seats," which
begins:
We had to listen in our heads
as if watching a newsreel with
lights dimmed,
the outline of it entering us.
The poet reflects on mortality in
"The Way We Die," which begins:
The day we die .....
the moon sends the sea
to wash away our footprints
Marks we made
in a lifetime of making ,
are swept away
easy as touching tongues
"I hope it probes (readers) on
their thinking, causes them to re-
flect on themselves," Olson said. "I
hope they enjoy it. I hope they find
it provocative."
Olson was born and raised in
Colorado, where his father worked
as a miner. He was 10 when his
family moved to the Skokomish
Valley, where his mother had two
sisters working at a small mill.
Olson's father worked at the
mill. The family of seven lived in a
house built for a farmhand.
"We didn't know it then, but we
were on the edge," he said. "But it
was a great place to grow up."
The family moved to Shelton's
Mountain View neighborhood,
and Olson attended Shelton High
School, from which he graduated
in 1959. Poetry was still a foreign
language to him then, he said.
"Hell, I barely read!" Olson ex-
claimed. "I didn't start writing po-
etry until I was retired from teach-
ing."
Olson joined the Air Force at age
17 and served for four years. After
returning to Shelton, he worked in
plywood mills and Christmas tree
farms.
see POET, page A-24
HARSTINE ISLAND NEWS
rmers ma
going strong;
summer
My apples and Asian
pears are just about
ready to pick. The
maple trees are showing some
color. A dewy chill
licks the grass blades
each morning, and
the sun keeps slipping
down the southern
horizon. I think fall is
tapping on the window.
The farmers mar-
ket is still going
strong. From my ob-
servations, this has
been one of the best-
attended markets in
years. Now, with the approach
of fall, the 2015 Harstine Is-
land Community Club calen-
dars will be available for pur-
chase starting at this week's
market, on Saturday.-The .....
By MIKE
CALLAGHAN
remaining Centennial T-shirts
will be on sale at a discounted
price, but not all sizes or col-
ors will be available.
On Sept. 3, senior
lunch organizers will
be serving up their
much-loved barbecue
country ribs along
with baked beans,
coleslaw and a cook's
choice cake. Then
on Sept. 17, they
will have one of my
favorites -- meatloaf,
baked potatoes and
green salad and fruit
crisp topped with whipped
cream. As usual, serving
starts at noon. But with an
average of 100 people show-
ing up for lunch, plan on get-
ting there-~little earlier. A
$3 donation is requested,
because these dedicated vol-
unteers work for hours to pre-
pare themeals and they don't
need to pay for the food out of
their own pockets. Everyone
ages 50 and older and their
friends are invited.
All those commercials
for school supplies are an-
other sign fall is creeping
closer. And, yes, school will be
starting right after Labor Day.
Pioneer School has not let
the summer slide by with-
out continuing to teach. In
today's world, it seems like
more and more education is
required. Pioneer School did
its part to keep our students
moving forward. Dan Beau-
doin coordinated the school's
-summer program and sent~me-
this report of its activities and
results:
"Approximately 80 to 90
students attended Pioneer
School's four-week summer
program in July, called Link
Up Summer Sensation. The
free program, funded by the
21st Century Learning Grant
and Pioneer School District,
included transportation,
snacks, lunches and weekly
field trips. A fantastic and
energetic team of educators
was assembled to design the
exciting program offerings
that provided students with
both grade-level skills and en-
richment opportunities to en-
hance student learning across
a variety of content areas. To
quote one staff member, 'The
- students won't even know that
they are learning because it
will be so much tim!' Students
attended a one-hour academic
lesson each day, where math,
science and language arts
were intertwined with the
theme of the week. This was
followed by student-selected
enrichment activities, includ-
ing 4-H gardening, robotics,
basketball skills and drills,
arts and crafts, dance, iMovie
creation, blundering builders,
and cooperative games.
"The point of Summer
Sensation camp was to make
learning fun in a summer-
camp-like environment and
to help prevent what is called
grade slide, which occurs
during the summer months
- " " see HARSTINE, page A-24
