Hopeful Horizons
In November of 2025, Creative Colloquy and the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, and City of Tacoma encouraged the community to submit micro-poetry, 6-word stories, or slogans as a part of our Hopeful Horizons: Climate Storytelling Contest.
The below were selected pieces, written and visual, as selected via blind submission from our editorial committee.
On the morning of November 22, we gathered at 7 Seas Tacoma Taproom to share these stories while making zines and rallying around the cause over bites and brew. For your reading (and viewing) pleasure, we present the following:
Grity City Cleanup by Cydney Kronlund
There once was a town known for its smell
The sky full of smog, the sea so unwell,
Until one day that gritty city said, “not us! No longer!
We’ll clean it up and build back stronger!”
Parks replaced smelters, trees lined new blocks, and eventually – probably – someday, the soil will be clean,
But working together, Tacoma of the future is hopeful and green.
From every small garden, a feast. by Jonny Eberle
A micro-poem by Elizabeth Beck
We must form our own bulwark
Against a rising inland sea
Hand in hand, our work, our plan
Can change the City’s Destiny
Every starfish is a warning
We must keep our climate alive
Instead of just survival
We can set our goal to: Thrive
The Ripples by Cat Melaunie
Bring your own water stash.
Bike to Safeway. Pick up trash.
Turn off lights. Walk to work in the rain.
Tiny ripples create waves of change.
Starfish limbs point to regeneration’s possibilities. by Sandy K. King
Hopeful Horizons by Sasha Victor
Reclaiming curbs with vegetables and herbs.
Recycling and cycling, expanding life cycles.
We are by-products of Nature’s revolution. by Jamie Fiano
~Kamie Huynh
All blossoms eventually wither, but they can be preserved in water. If we make a change, we too can preserve ourselves, and our planet.
