Former Vashon poet laureate, painter and sculptor Ina Whitlock will read from her latest book of poems, “Moments Out of Time,” at 6 p.m. Friday at Vashon Bookshop.

In her solo art retrospective “80 Years in Art 1936-2016,” on display at VALISE Gallery, Whitlock has paired some of her images with some of her poems, believing that poetry and painting are cousins.

In her new book, Whitlock uses her words to paint the points she wants others to understand. She sees our world changing rapidly and wants to draw attention to what may be getting lost.

On a recent flight to Jackson, Mississippi, Whitlock said she thought she would sleep as it was a red-eye flight, but instead she watched the lights below her spread out all across the country.

“I came home, and the next day I heard that fireflies are disappearing because of halogen lights,” she recalled. “The poem wrote itself …. ‘Have fireflies lost their reason for being or are they lost because we don’t remember them.’”

“Moments Out of Time” is of Whitlock’s way of remembering and she hopes of waking others up. In the book’s dedication, she writes, “I dedicate this book to my extended family, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, in the hope of bringing my concerns for the future into words and to express my faith that poetry is one way to bring enlightened consciousness to man and womankind.”

The following poem is from “Moments Out of Time.”

SHORE

Walk this shore of transient waves

escaping to sunlight’s enfoldment

of stones, concretions, shells,

accidental patterning in sands

reversing, turning again, so small

an incident of planetary time.