A Poetic Tribute to Whidbey’s Flora
By Mary Reddy • Photos by Nia Martin
What prompts a person who has been a blackjack dealer, congressional staffer, craft store owner, ambassadorial spouse, realtor, and office manager to write a chapbook filled with plants and poems? Add poet to that list of occupations and it begins to make sense. The book is titled “A Whidbey Botanical” and Linda Beeman is its multifaceted creator.
The slim volume features 22 delicate watercolor sketches of flora—including swordfern, hellebore, cedar, and lichen—along with poems and snippets of folklore or curious facts related to each. The watercolors are loosely arranged by season, from January to December, with Beeman finding inspiration in the lush growth of her immediate environment. “Some of the plants are wild, some are weeds,” she noted, “and a few, like the crocosmia, I planted myself.” Altogether, they represent a microcosm of Whidbey Island’s Pacific Northwest landscape.
Why a chapbook? This format has its roots in European history, when itinerant peddlers, known as chapmen, sold pamphlets door-to-door. These small, affordable books often contained poetry, ballads, or religious or political tracts.
