The A Cappella Handyman: Viggo & the New Anthology

The Benicia First Tuesday Poets’ new poetry anthology (the 7th) came out this past Sunday with a group meeting/Release Event at the City library’s Dona Benicia Room. “Light & Shadow” is its title, a collaborative effort between Benicia First Tuesday Poets and Benicia’s literary organization, Benicia Literary Arts. Thirty-seven poets are represented with three or four poems each, 156 pages in all. Nice work by the publishing team of Lois Requist doing layout and coordination, with cover design by Tom Stanton and Johanna Ely, and always top-notch compiling and proofreading by poet group member Sherry Sheehan of Crockett. Copies will be available for sale at Bookshop Benicia, 636 First St., Benicia for $14.95.
After my normal rounds of work on Monday, I took one of my anthology copies and headed for the First Street waterfront. Out on the Spit, facing south towards the opposite foothills, the afternoon sun coming in my truck’s passenger window, I read the whole thing! Nice work! Nice layout and design to all pages, nice Bio of each poet giving the readers some insight as to who these creative types are and what backgrounds nurture and/or motivate their poetry. Nearby the local homing pigeons were busy with their wooing and noise-making. I thought for a minute about my earliest days in San Leandro, my grandfather Adolf Viggo Larsen’s pigeon loft and those familiar homing pigeon sounds. I opened my driver’s side door, powered down the window and rested my foot through the open window space. In no time at all a Blue Bar, light blue with dark blue bars on his wings flew over and landed on the top of my door. “Whatcha reading, kid?” “Reading some great poems by the locals, want me to read you some? Don Peery’s got a poem in here about skipping creek rocks that’ll knock your socks off.” “No, I’ll pass, I was just looking for popcorn or seed corn. Got any? The lady that usually feeds us must be running late.” Just then a second Blue Bar landed on my door top, nearly identical to the first. I was two or three when I first met my grandfather’s homing pigeons. Dad was off fighting the war in Europe. “So which one of you is Adolf and which is Viggo?” “Viggo? Oh, yeah, he had a loft in San Leandro, didn’t he? I remember my older relatives talking about him. Nice old Danish man, went to pigeon shows, banded his birds – you can call me ‘Viggo’, but next time I see ya, bring birdseed, OK? Say Hi to Don Peery and your poetry pals. I’m outa here.”

The cover of “Light and Shadow,” the new anthology by the Benicia First Tuesday Poetry Group. (Courtesy image)

Poets included in “Light and Shadow” are:

Noris Binet
Peter Bray
Suzanne Bruce
Merrilee Cavenecia
Saswati Das
Cathy Dana
Mary Eichbauer
Johanna Ely
Joel Fallon
John Feth
Marilyn Flower
Deborah Fruchey
Mary Susan Gast
Carol Gieg
Beth Grimm
Gina Guzzo
Georgette Howington
Frances Jackson
Jeffrey Kingman
D. L. Lang
Ronna Leon
H. Martin Malin
Camille Miller
Kathy Monroe
Jady Montgomery
Sam Morse
Myra Nissen
Don Peery
Lois Requist
Bobby Richardson
Dan Ryken
Sherry Sheehan
Robert Shelby
Deborah Silverman
Thomas Stanton
Roger Straw
Becky White