The turnout for earlier “Poetry on the Salish Sea” events has organizers predicting a stellar turnout for the final event on Sept. 29. 

“Our numbers obviously don’t compare to rock concert crowds,” said Kathryn Hunt, founder and curator of the event. “But it is rock concert numbers for poetry. Really, if five or even 25 people show up for a poetry reading in Port Townsend, we count it as a success.” 

The June readings brought 85 people, July a whopping 150, and 60 in August. Hunt noted that averages out to 98 audience members per reading so far. “September,” said Hunt, “the sky’s the limit.” 

Poetry on the Salish Sea concludes its second annual run with poets Rick Barot, Melissa Kwasny and Jacqueline Allen Trimble at the Wilderbee Farm and Meadery in Port Townsend on Sunday, Sept. 29, at 3 p.m.

Poetry on the Salish Sea is a local, volunteer-led organization whose poetry readings run from 3-4:30 p.m. on the last Sundays of June, July, August and September, for free to all ages, albeit with donations gratefully accepted.

Barot was longlisted for the National Book Award, a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and winner of the 2009 Grub Street Book Prize, while Kwasny, a former Montana Poet Laureate, is the author of seven collections of poems, and Trimble is author of “American Happiness” — winner of the Balcones Poetry Prize — and “How to Survive the Apocalypse.”

Barot’s fourth book of poems, “The Galleons,” was longlisted for the National Book Award, and his collections include “The Darker Fall, “Want” — a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, and winner of the 2009 Grub Street Book Prize — and “Chord,” all from Sarabande Books.

Barot’s work has appeared in Poetry, The New Republic, and The New Yorker, and he has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and Stanford University.

Barot lives in Tacoma and directs the Rainier Writing Workshop, and his newest book, “Moving the Bones,” will be published this year.

Kwasny’s collections of poems include “The Cloud Path,” “Where Outside the Body Is the Soul Today,” “Pictograph” — which received the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award — and “The Nine Senses.”

Kwasny is also the author of “Earth Recitals: Essays on Image and Vision,” and has edited multiple anthologies, including “Toward the Open Field: Poets on the Art of Poetry 1800–1950” and, with M.L. Smoker, “I Go to the Ruined Place: Contemporary Poems in Defense of Global Human Rights.”

Kwasny’s work has appeared in Ploughshares, Boston Review, and The Arcadia Project: North American Postmodern Pastoral, among many other journals.

Kwasny lives in Montana and shared her former position of Montana Poet Laureate with Smoker.

Trimble lives in Montgomery, Alabama, and is not only a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow in poetry, but also a Cave Canem graduate fellow and an Alabama State Council on the Arts Literary Fellow.

Trimble’s poetry has appeared in Poetry Magazine, The Louisville Review, The Offing, The Rumpus, Salvation South and Poet Lore, and has been widely anthologized.

Trimble’s nonfiction appears most recently in “Old Enough,” a collection of essays on aging and creativity by women artists.

Trimble earned her B.A. from Huntingdon College, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Alabama, and she’s a professor of English who chairs the Department of Languages and Literatures at Alabama State University.

Hunt noted that both Port Townsend and the Olympic Peninsula have “a celebrated legacy as a home to poets, literary presses and publishers.” As such, her poetry reading series is intended to ensure that poetry “remains central to the cultural and literary life of the communities of this place.”

Hunt elaborated that Poetry on the Salish Sea is “dedicated to the power of poetry’s intimate, singular language and its transformative influence on the human heart,” in recognition of poetry’s “capacity to promote empathy and a shared experience of our common humanity,” while also celebrating “the natural abundance and beauty of the Salish Sea region.”

As for the turnout this year, Hunt said it has amazed here. She said it was possible it had “lit a fire.”

I can’t really explain it, except our poets are phenomenal — and we’ve just hustled to stay up with the momentum and enthusiasm.

Although parking is available onsite, with an additional overflow lot located adjacent to the farm, carpooling is encouraged and appreciated.

Attendees are encouraged to come early, as seating is limited, and to bring comfortable, low-backed chairs or blankets for seating.

All readings are held outdoors, so attendees are advised to dress accordingly.

Small-batch handcrafted mead and non-alcoholic beverages will be available for purchase.

Visit poetrysalishsea.com, wilderbeefarm.com or kathrynhunt.net for the remaining season roster and more information on the poets.

Wilderbee Farm is located on the extension of 223 Cook Ave. and opens at noon that Sunday.