(Editor’s note: The Herald received word last week from Poet Laureate Johanna Ely that Frances Jackson died June 14 after a period of illness. Jackson was a long-time member of the Benicia First Tuesday Poetry Group and won the Benicia Love Poetry Contest in 2015. Details on her memorial are still being worked out, but […]
Poetry Corner: Frances Jackson-Patrick “Leily”
She wears polka dot shoes with heels I gave her though not yet five and far away she follows me my shadow belated child of my child’s child. She wears a cowboy hat with heels I gave her she said, “I love God and Grandma Frances Jackets.” laughing hard until I cried overcome by a […]
Poetry Corner: “Love, When it Came” by Frances Jackson-Patrick
Love, when it came came late springing forth from tide’s retreat into my tired eyes then silken-like slipped o’er my breasts my shoulders and my thighs a shimmering dress of forgotten sighs. A suppleness replaced the gaunt of aging limbs light of foot and lovely I became (love’s sleight of hand the consequence) in fading […]
Poetry Corner: “Benicia” by Frances Jackson-Patrick
Saline waters of the Bay recede when Benicia sends her tides to sea with mountain water in their sweetened waves to bless the iron ships that pass. Benicia dips her flowered hair to scent the breeze that wafts our wetland birds between the fingers of her hands, back to their huddled nests again. She walks […]
Frances Jackson-Patrick: Benicia, The Mounds
My home was a ranchland three feet down Vaqueros rode Horse whisperers these through ranch and town their tracks forever carved in ground like artifacts in native mounds My home was a ranchland close to the sea that rose from the shore to the knotted roots of magnolia trees just a pebble’s throw from my […]