Freelance illustrator, graphic designer, biologist and Vashon resident Sandra Noel is well-known for her interpretive and educational signs posted around the island and throughout the Northwest. What many islanders do not know is that Noel is also a published poet. She will read from her new chapbook, “The Gypsy in my Kitchen,” at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28, at the Vashon Bookshop.
For an artist whose career includes a degree in marine biology and working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries, the National Park and the U.S. Forest Service, it is not surprising that Noel’s poetry calls forth images of the natural world.
In “Orpheus is dead,” Noel writes, “compose your own songs … inside you or borrow from these small birds gathering in the branches … no sacrifice or offering … all is given, all is received.”
Originally from the East Coast, Noel moved west in 1975 to attend Western Washington University for a degree in marine biology. She moved with her son to Vashon in 1982, and with the advent of Strawberry Festival that year, hand painted printed drawings she’d made of Vashon’s natural habitats, a tradition she kept for 20 years. Noel eventually created greeting cards from 14 of the images and sells them at various outlets on the island.
In 1987, Noel began the business she still runs today, making signs for the national parks and forest service. On the island, her signs can be seen at Island Center Forest, marking the history of the Dockton area, at the overlook of the marine park on Maury, at Quartermaster Yacht Club and for the small stream projects.
As for her poetry, Noel said she’s been writing since the late 1970s, with a gap while she raised her son as a single mother, eventually returning to the poetic word through her association with former island poet laureate Ann Spiers.
“I met Ann while working on an interpretive sign project in Yakima,” Noel said. “Her writing is stunning. She inspired me to pick it up again.”
Noel joined an island poetry group and has attended since 2008. Four years into the group, she rose to the challenge of writing a poem a day for a year. She’s been doing it ever since.
“It’s terrifying to sit down and come up with something every day. Some days are better than others, but we are still doing it,” Noel said.
The group also encouraged Noel to submit her poems for publication, and many have been published in various literary and poetry journals. Only recently have her poems been published as a collection.
Her next chapbook, “The Green,” will include poems about her island home of Vashon and her volunteer work with Alliance for Tompotika — a nonprofit conservation organization working to help the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia, directed by islander Marcy Summers.
Noel said the book also reflects the many ways she feels inspired by living here — by the number of poets, writers and creative residents and, of course, the power of the natural environment that is so readily available on Vashon.
Indeed, as a keen observer of the natural world, Noel celebrates its unfettered powers for healing. In her poem, “Sacrifice,” Noel writes: “Today a small rain creates concentric magic. A pair of red tails circle overhead. … I came here closed and broken. I leave filled with light.”
