It’s a little town that comes to life only once a year— just three cheerful buildings that look like they’re made of gingerbread and white icing, set down carefully along the edge of a fireplace mantle. The miniature snow men and snow women stroll between the bakery and the post office, their arms filled with […]
Poetry Corner: Johanna Ely “Thanksgiving”
I am thankful for what is unpredictable— the sudden gush of rain, the lightning and the thunder— the insistence from this world to pay attention. I delight in colors indigo and orange, what gels into a sunset. I’m elated for what begins again— the wide-eyed dawn, the seasons that return in cycles of joy. But […]
Poetry Corner: Johanna Ely “Birthday Poem”
It is one hour and fifteen minutes until my birthday and I am announcing I love you to whomever is listening. In the kitchen I’m hugging my son who wasn’t there the day I was born but who loves that I gave him life and am still present- these written words turning autumn leaves into […]
Poetry Corner: Johanna Ely “Grey”
Once I thought I understood the color grey and all its nuances- a wet, foggy blur of rain on glass, a single, clear tear on the cheek, a dull winter sky before snowfall. Now I inhale it- breathe the ashes that rise up from charred squares of land where houses once stood, from drifting, swirling […]
Poetry Corner: Johanna Ely “Roses and Stars”
What a surprise to see roses bloom in October! Peeking out from the high hedge, they are a breath of pale pink, the color of this morning sky. Garbage trucks rumble in the alley and the tired moon has gone home. She has left behind a trail of fallen stars- those scarlet leaves scattered in […]
Photo: Poets’ minds at work
Poetry Corner: Johanna Ely “Two Moons”
Looking out the kitchen window, I see the autumn moon setting large and full over western hills. It is 6am and still dark, except for one streetlight in front of the house- how it glows and pretends to be another moon. Johanna Ely is Benicia’s poet laureate.
Poetry Corner: Johanna Ely “Serendipity”
We didn’t plan to leave town- thought the clouds might burn off in time, but then decided to drive south towards the band of light above the mountain. We drove as far as we could in thirty minutes, until we saw patches of blue sky and parked the car in a shopping center lot, in […]
Poetry Corner: Johanna Ely “Summer Twilight”
Sit quietly at the water’s edge, under the delicate calligraphy of black branches. Listen for the tiniest ripple of still water- let it soothe your heart. Notice how a pale blue-gray sky sweetens to dusky apricot on the horizon, how it softens the distant bridge, the sleepy hills. Watch the gulls careen and swoop, fly […]