Joel Fallon, Benicia’s first poet laureate, died in 2016 but his legacy as an architect of poetry in Benicia lives on, in more ways than one. One of these legacies is the Joel Fallon Poetry Scholarship, which is awarded to two poetically savvy graduating seniors, one from Benicia High School and the other from Liberty High School. To raise money for the scholarship, the Benicia First Tuesday Poetry Group will be hosting its annual Why Poetry event, which brings seasoned and emerging poets together for an evening of poetry reading.

“The theme is ‘Why Poetry,” Benicia Poet Laureate Johanna Ely said. “Why do people write poetry? What makes them need to do that?”

Fallon started the scholarship in 2015 as a way to encourage students to become or remain involved in poetry. He developed a hands-on approach to promoting it.

“He and I spent several mornings in high school classrooms wooing teachers and firing up students,” Ely said. “He’d always tell them, ‘Poetry is the most fun you can have sitting down.’ Sometimes they believed him.”

The scholarship is far from Fallon’s only legacy in the Benicia poetry community. He helped establish annual events like the Benicia Love Poetry Contest, Poets’ Picnic in the Park and the First Tuesday Poetry Group, which meets on the first Tuesday of the month in the Benicia Public Library’s Dona Benicia Room. He also established the Benicia Poet Laureate program and fittingly was the first to hold the title.

“Joel and some of the other people in the community came to us with the idea of Benicia having a poet laureate and asked if the library wanted to take that on,” Mary Eichbauer, the poet laureate liaison for the Board of Library Trustees, said. “We did.”

A big element of Fallon’s legacy was his influence on Benicia poets, many of whom were mentored by Fallon. Peter Bray recalled learning about a poetry group meeting at the library, which at that time was meeting in a small room at the end of the art gallery hallway, rather than its larger quarters in the Dona Benicia Room. Bray met a few people in that meeting, including future Poet Laureate Ronna Leon, and was blown away by Fallon’s poetry.

“He wrote some genuinely great American poetry, about Bougainvilleas, romance, owls, love, and a hand knife that would do some serious cutting,” Bray said. “And he had chapbooks he had published! And what a pleasant, clear-as-summer-night-air speaking voice! I was hooked.”

Not long after the start of the poetry group, Fallon also established the Love Poetry Contest and Poets’ Picnic in the Park, which began meeting in Civic Center Park before moving to its current location at City Park.

“Things with Joel were always a happening,” Bray said.

Ely met Fallon after she started attending the First Tuesday Poetry meetings in 2012. Fallon was always encouraging to her and helped mentor her in running the Love Poetry Contest and during both her bids for poet laureate. She also said he frequently gave suggestions but was always fair.

“As a critic, he was gentle and kind,” she said. “Actually, he rarely criticized. Instead, he made sure I had the resources to become a better poet. He gave me a thesaurus, a rhyming dictionary and instructions on how to successfully recite poetry to an audience.”

He was also quick to let others know when he liked their poems, Ely said. “Your poem is splendid,” was a refrain he would often use.

Local poet Tom Stanton got to know Fallon through Bookshop Benicia, where Stanton works, because Fallon and fellow former Poet Laureate Robert Shelby were looking for a venue to perform at. Stanton also remembers workshops that Fallon delivered at the library, including one on haikus which Stanton said was not a typical lecture.

“He used a projector and the giant screen, and you felt you were somewhere else,” he said. “He made everything real. He allowed you your fantasy, but he made it all real.”

Even after being diagnosed with cancer, Fallon remained involved with the poetry community and continued attending events.

“Unless he was in the hospital, he was there,” Stanton said. “Everywhere you would go and be, he was there, particularly if it was a program he had started. He would always be there, and he would always make a comment, which was virtually always positive.”

Eichbauer said Fallon was also humble about his own work.

“He was just so generous, not only with his advice and help but with his work,” she said. “He would show me things that weren’t finished and say ‘See what you think of this.’ He had written so much and was so experienced, but he was always looking for some feedback.”

“He wasn’t stuck up about his own work at all,” she added.

Ely said that Fallon will forever remain an integral part of Benicia’s poetry community.

“His legacy will go on forever,” she said. “When people think of poetry in Benicia, they think of him.”

“Why Poetry” will bring veteran poets and up-and-coming teen poets to one venue to perform their work. The event will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 24 in the library’s Dona Benicia Room, located at 250 East L St. There will be refreshments, door prizes and an opportunity to donate funds for the scholarship. The event is free and open to the public.