A poem by Bud Light Today was a good day To hear and see To breathe, and be To love and feel thanks To be alive To also think of those So near and dear Who aren’t. Do you have insightful, topical or just all around creative poetry that you’d like to share with the […]
Jeff Burkhart’s “Rhyme and Reason”: Strictly Speaking
The thing about us humans Since when we stood up tall to walk Is our innate ability To think and then to talk Talking is important It’s because we think in words But as I weigh the consequence It may be for the birds On one hand we have poetry And literature to read We […]
Poetry Corner: James Garrett “Do Unto Others”
Think very clearly, As you pass through the day. Take care of all your features, How you act and what you say. Let your feelings flow, But give more than you receive. Have tears come from joy, Not from those who grieve. In your heart have room for mercy. Forgive a weakness you have seen. […]
Poetry Corner: Bud Light “Sometime, Maybe”
When I was a child Just testing my strength With a voice barely whispered I could stop the wind. Stop blowing, I command you Stop blowing. Trees would not sway Papers and leaves would not Dance from curb to curb And I was very pleased. When I was a child Just testing my strength I […]
Jeff Burkhart’s “Rhyme and Reason”: A Deaf Ear
People when they’re talking and Expressing points of view Want for you to understand The things they say to you Sometimes it takes some patience Just to hear the speaker out With listening comprehension of The speaker’s words throughout Folks get so used to sound bites And abbreviated quips It makes them struggle keeping up […]
Friday Poetry Corner: Sherry Sheehan “Three Days After (For Joel)”
An event you invented as Benicia’s first poet laureate, the poets’ picnic was held without you, only three days after you joined the realm that Benicia’s second laureate, Bob Shelby, beat you to by a fast five months. Benicia’s sixth laureate read a poem to the picnic-goers she posted online, a tribute to you and […]
Poetry Corner: Johanna Ely “Never Wear Glasses”
(Dedicated to Joel Fallon) You told me to always make eye contact with my audience, to blow up the print of my poems to a font size of 14. Never wear glasses, you advised, or drink water while you read. No distractions, you said. You told me I wrote good poetry, but that the word […]
Poetry Corner: Mary Susan Gast “August Sky”
August is big time. Meteors streak the heavens, Illuminating Our own space travel, Through the cosmos. Crickets string iridescent beads of song in the stillness. Marvelous Cygnus stretches overhead, Soaring, Amid the spiraling delicacy of pastel nebulae. Bright Vega, Modestly hugging the horizon just weeks ago, Now strides To the pinnacle Of the firmament. Timeless […]
Jeff Burkhart’s “Rhyme and Reason”: Regarding Joel Fallon
A great man has passed away. I met Joel Fallon when I burst onto the Benicia poetry scene in 2012. Some of the poets didn’t embrace my simple rhymes at first, but Joel would read my work in the Benicia Herald and write letters to the editor saying how much he enjoyed them. Now in […]
Poetry Corner: “For Joel Fallon” by Ronna Leon
You called them “dead Mother poems” and scorned their cloying sentiment, easy forgiveness. Your poem about your Mother named her Kali. You hungered for life – anger, difficulty, competition, sex. You insisted that wringing a tear from a stone was superior to opening well oiled floodgates. Now you are dead and my tears come unbidden […]