Poetic Surprises: You Never Know What You’ll Hear

I’m amazed every time I hear First Tuesday Poets read by the variety, intensity, and sensitivity of the work. Those published in Sign of the Times, speak of memories, politics, relationships, grief, spirituality, just about any subject, and in a way that is easily understood.

Saturday, April 28, will be the celebration of the anthology from 2-4 p.m. in the Dona Benicia Room of the . The public is invited. Bookshop Benicia will be on hand to take orders.

I’d like to tell you briefly about each poet:

Three Benicia poet laureates are in the book--Robert Shelby, Joel Fallon, and Ronna Leon. Two other poet laureates included are Juanita Martin of Fairfield and Gary Silva of Napa.

Some poems are shaped on the page such as Carole Dwinell’s “A Kind of Bed Called Harp,” Donald Peery’s “A Trap!” and Anne Worthington Prescott’s (doesn’t that name just sound like a poet?) “On Listening to Sibelius: The Fourth Symphony.”

Peter Bray meets life head on—raging against his daughter’s disease and imagining what it would be like, “When Poets take Over the World.”

Personal experiences are depicted in some works. “Morning” is a poem by Alice Salerno about a woman waking to find her husband dead beside her. Frances Jackson learns a tough lesson and stops us in our tracks with “Daddy’s Girl.” John Berry, in “Time After Time,” hears “the past echoes” in “smells of ham, grape dumplings, cornbread, more! Setting the table groaning.” Tamra Amato writes about “Grandma’s Doughnuts.” Chuck Conner learns forgiveness from his mother and “the noble feeling of truth” from his father. “A pantry is something I never had,” by Joseph Martino grabs me for its earthy descriptions of mundane items.

Some poets wrote about the American dream. In “A Family’s Dream,” Suzanne Bruce speaks of foreclosure, of  “falling off the rosy cloud of the American Dream.”

“The rooms inside were embroidered with love, while the economy was being knitted with greed.”

Bobbie Richardson speaks on the “American dream (nightmare).”

Events and politics are spoken of in M.R. Merris’ work “the pure poem of Woodstock” as he tells what that event was about; Maria Rosales writes about immediate and devastating events, as does Deborah Silverman, in “After 9/11.”

Mary Susan Gast addresses spirituality in “That Which Does Not Satisfy,” concluding with this admonition,

“Reject everything

That depletes you,

Spurn anything

That leaves you

Less than

Whole.”

Similarly, John Goory, in “Reincarnation” says,

“Ten centuries is not enough to learn

The mysteries of the universe

Do you think you can learn it in one lifetime.”

Jady Montgomery’s poems are very present--asking questions, suggesting answers, and bringing us along to ponder. Thomas Stanton’s poems are spare, clear, and poignant.

A wry sense of humor is seen in Sherry Sheehan’s “A Touchy Talk.”

Some people, particularly younger ones speak of wants. Colin Amato wants to soar like a red bird, but finds himself caged by “longing and limitation.” Jeffrey Kingman in “Birthmark” wants acceptance.

Donald Peery tells us, in “My Poems” that poems are like children:

“Held captive, none could succeed –

set free, who knows, one just might.”

Joanette Sorkin, a physician, lived in Alaska for several years. In “Mushing from Dillingham” she learns that dogs have a mind of their own and that “irony, it’s said, is lost on dogs.”

Well-known local artist, Sandra Stillwell ponders the life of a “common field weed” and Bonnie Wiedel writes about “Arneson’s Bench.”

I think you’ll be engaged and inspired by listening to these poets on Saturday.