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Poetry Month at King County Archives

Published April 3, 2025

By Danielle Coyle, Assistant Archivist, King County Archives

King County has always been the type of place that can make its citizens wax lyrical, so it isn’t surprising that some of that poetry would eventually make it to us here at the King County Archives. Since April is National Poetry Month, we’d like to highlight some of the verse that can be found in our collections.

Image of exterior of Bus with the word "POETRY" advertised on the side

Image from King County Archives, 4Culture, Accession 2016-128, Box 31

Every year from 1992 to 2007, the King County Arts Commission (now known as 4Culture) partnered with King County Metro Transit to hold a public poetry competition open to local poets of all ages and backgrounds. The selected poems were displayed on bus advertising placards, bus stops and were incorporated into collaborations with visual artists and graphic designers, and collections of poems on websites and in printed booklets. The King County Archives holds a wealth of material from the Poetry On Buses program including poetry collections, graphic design samples and administrative records. This unique public arts program demonstrates that poetry can come from anyone and be found anywhere.

  • Poetry on Buses 2003 promotional flyer. Black and Yellow image with a "Lost Cat" Flyer on the left and a "Lost and Found" diagram on the right
  • Promotional flyer with hand drawn cartoon of an East-Asian appearing man with glasses and serveral other East and South Asian appearing poeple. There text on the image reads "One to One" and "Points of Contact" There is the logo for the King County Public Art Program in the bottom right corner.
Flyer from the 1998 Poetry Bus Competition from King County Metro that says :"Now is the opportunity to submit poetry for the 1998 Metro Poetry Bus Competition"

Speaking of finding poetry in unexpected places, the King County Arts Commission records aren’t the only place in the King County Archives where you can stumble across versification. Take for example this report prepared for the Department of Public Works in 1995: “Little Soos Creek Microbial Source Tracking: A Survey” that opens with a poem called “Water Verse”.

Cover image of report prepared for the Department of Public Works in 1995: “Little Soos Creek Microbial Source Tracking A Survey August 1995" Below it states that it was "Prepared for: King County Department of Public Works Surface Water Management Division" Below that it states "Prepared by: Dr. Mansour Samadpour Naomi Chechowitz University of Washington Department of Environmental Health"
Poem titled "Water Verse" The stream, it tells a story of the land it passes through. The land, it never stays the same for long. The elements, creatures and people, they change the land. This change, it alters the stream-story to good or ill. The people, they are able to read the water's verse ...and keep it sweet.

King County Archives, Series 872, Documents collection, Box 437

Browsing though our documents collections will also reveal a small epic entitled “Slaying the Draining Dragon” written by an unnamed bard in Surface Water Management in 1987.

Poem titled "Slaying the Drainage Dragon" The Kingdom of King continues to expand There is concern about rain when it falls on the land The drainage dragon uses rain for his diabolical streams But Sir Jim came to the rescue, His band of knights proved tuff They create new programs And other good stuff Sir Jim said: "To attack the dragon, we need more knights This will enable us to reach new heights Now we have a hundred knights, you see I expect to double that by '93" To all villagers he said: "You'll pay a higher fee But it's a small price to pay For life's quality... The dragon must be slain with vigor and vim It's all here in a new program Called SWM We've spring-loaded our plans and CIP In a couple of years the results you will see In six short years the dragon will be gone And all over King County salmon will spawn When citizens call to complain about rain We'll no longer hold our hands up in vain We'll have a new program called off-roads, that's so And we'll respond to more calls with a yes, not a no After his speech Sir Jim laid back It would be up to the Council to keep things on track Our work is done, there's not much more we can do Have fund reading these thousand pages and two.

King County Archives, Series 872, Documents collection, Box 384

And finally, there’s and ode to public transit entitled “Bless This Bus” written by poet and King County Metro bus driver S. Annette Bishop and printed in a 1994 collection of poetry written by King County Metro employees.

2 poems by S. Annette Bishop. The first one is titled "Haiku" Proud wild birds beckon. An Exodus of Glory. Splitting seas of dawn. The second poem it titled "Bless This Bus" (to the tune of "Bless This House") Bless this bus, O Lord I pray, Make me on-time every day. Bless these faces shining bright; Flashing transfers left and right. The poem is continued on the image in the right column.
This is the second part of S. Annette Bishop's 2nd poem titled "Bless This Bus" Bless the ones who never pay; (what more really can I say?) Bless my diesel, Bless my wheels, Bless my Latté as it spills...... Bless us all that we may be Ever safe (and on-time) with me and thee.

So, this this April, King County Archives staff would like to remind you that poetry, like beauty is where you find it.

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