In this month darkness comes late leaves glisten for hours in waning light breezes calm the heat a fan purrs in the room while cats sleep belly up miniature moons dance on a wall then disappear the roses in the vase swell and unfold petals curl then drop too soon the peaches too soft the […]
Poetry Corner: Johanna Ely “On High School Graduation Day”
You chatter and preen in your seat like a radiant bluebird- your graduation gown puffed out like a sail that has finally caught the wind. You have blossomed into a wide-eyed sunflower- tenderly watering your roots with your own tears. And now, all these days lie ahead of you my lovely one- all these glorious, […]
Poetry Corner: Johanna Ely “To the One Who Balances Rocks (at the Benicia Marina)”
Thank you for the rock sculptures that stand peacefully along this water’s edge. You, who have mastered the art of balance, who work alone before dawn- thank you for your fingers that are as patient as a lover’s, how you find the slipping into- the jagged point into crevice, the curve into hollow- one asymmetrical […]
Poetry Corner: Johanna Ely “Wake-Up Call”
At 7:30 am a wake-up call- No son asking for a ride to work, no grandson needing a ride to school. Instead, a calm, taped voice… Listen carefully- (remembered words) emergency refinery Industrial Park evacuate. Then, the siren. No, it’s not the practice one we all ignore, wrong time, wrong day. We listen to its […]
Poetry Corner: Johanna Ely “Balance”
“Balance is a survival skill you must master” our exercise teacher repeatedly reminds us- “If you fall and hurt yourself it will be the beginning of the end,” and so we try to mimic her- like twenty old cranes, heads crowned with white feathers, we practice daily in the school gym, determined to balance on […]
Poetry Corner: Johanna Ely “Spring Rain”
The noisy birds Hide in gauzy layers Of morning mist Chatter among themselves Like gossiping neighbors Heady with the prospect Of coming rain The pattering down Sound Of dry soil Made thick Muddy Fertile The sudden softening Of hard winter twigs Finally able to Bend and give At last rounded and formed By wet clay […]
Love is back: Annual love poetry contest returns for 14th year
It’s February, and love is in the air. Come Feb. 19, it will also be in poetic verse and rhythm at the Benicia Historical Museum for the annual Benicia Love Poetry Contest. The Love Poetry Contest was founded by Benicia’s first Poet Laureate Joel Fallon in 2004, before the city had a poet laureate program. […]
Poetry Corner: Johanna Ely “How to Build a Wall”
At first, there is only me, but then I grab the hand of the young Mexican boy who walks his tiny chihuahua past my house at the same time every day, and he in turn shyly takes the hand of the middle-aged Chinese woman who does the alterations at the dry cleaners, who quietly holds […]
Poetry Corner: Johanna Ely “How the Dream Comes”
It doesn’t matter how the dream comes, just that it comes, and it always does. Poverty, heartbreak, or abuse might defer it, but it still finds a way to slip inside you and begin its song. Sometimes it first appears when you’re a little girl, maybe five or six years old. You see a bird, […]
2016 Year in Review: City news characterized by election, City Hall changes and more
(Over the next few days, the Benicia Herald will close out 2016 by revisiting the big local news stories of the year. Today’s edition will focus on news that took place within the city.) The year 2016 is coming to a close. With the presidential election, big national and international stories, and long championship droughts […]