Submitted by Griffin Bay Bookstore.

Griffin Bay Bookstore presents two Northwest poets recently published by regional publisher Empty Bowl Press, Ann Spier, author of “Wild Cucumber,” and Ed Harkness, author of “Creek Water,” on Sunday, Nov. 2, in the Griffin Bay Bookstore Cafe on Spring Street.

In the opening lines of “Wild Cucumber,” Spiers writes, “leaving / I walk left into morning glory / no shortcuts.” In her latest full-length collection, Spiers’ poems reveal intimate human yearning, draping events with the lush and rugged backdrops she travels as girl, woman, mother, grandmother, teacher, lover, hiker, writer, outsider, insider and in many other voices. Interweaving distinctive imagery of natural and made landscapes with details of local, political and women’s history, these poems explore the islands, beaches and the volcanoes of the Pacific Northwest. In “Wild Cucumber,” Spiers invites us along on her enduring journey with no shortcuts offered or needed.

Harkness’s range of form and subjects (in “Creek Water: New and Selected Poems”) is so rich, you can open this volume anywhere to find moments of revelation: “One moment, / you’re listing all your failings. / The next, you’re standing with your lover / on a river gravel bar, / showered in a confetti of light.”

“More than anything, Harkness’s lyric, muscular language does the necessary work of reconnecting us to the natural world. What a gift to have this lifetime of poems, clear and evocative as a mountain stream, to bring us back to ourselves, to the heart’s wisdom,” says Alicia Hokanson, author of “Perishable World,” winner of the International Eyelands Book Awards Grand Prize for poetry.

Spiers lives on Vashon Island, where she was its inaugural poet laureate and stewards the town’s Poetry Post. Her poems appear widely in journals, anthologies and online. Her books include “Wild Cucumber” and “Rain Violent” (Empty Bowl), and “Back Cut” (Black Heron). Chapbooks include “Harpoon” (Ravenna), “The Herodotus Poems” (Brooding Heron) and “Volcano Blue,” “Tide Turn” and “A Wild Taste” (May Day). She’s enjoyed residencies at the Whiteley Center, UW Friday Harbor Labs. Learn more at www.annspiers.com.

Harkness was born in 1947 and grew up in Seattle. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Montana. Harkness taught English and creative writing at Shoreline College for 34 years. He lives with his life-mate, Linda, in Shoreline, Washington.

Both poets will be on hand to share their new work and to inscribe copies of their volumes, which will be for sale at Griffin Bay Bookstore. Griffin Bay Bookstore is located at 155 Spring St., Friday Harbor, and is an independent bookstore. When you shop locally and support your independent bookstore, you nurture your own community.