BAY AREA POETS REVIEW 

"Poetry is my life blood." -- Chuck Berry

Tomorrow, Saturday, August 6, Ronna Leon, one of our stalwart local poet laureates and the First Tuesday Poets of Benicia are hosting the first-ever "Poets' Picnic." Benicia, Ronna tells me, has played a major role in our history, and has its own rich literary tradition, with Jack London, Stephen Vincent Benet, John Muir and others crossing paths here.

It's an odd thing to gather for a picnic with a group of poets--a strangely wholesome thing, to sit in a park, listen to people reading their poetry while chowing down on potato salad and watermelon. Yet, in spite of our tendency toward introversion, poets do love to schmooze and this area provides ample opportunity for that.

There has always been a tension between being social and committed to making a better world, and being internal and committed to one's own blood flow, keeping healthy, wrestling with demons, etc. My own tendency is to avoid socializing in favor of being at home, reading and writing. I force myself out of the house, and I almost always have a good time once I do--after recuperating from the loss of energy, that is.

What poets are is something all too easily stereotyped; we know we are as idiosyncratic as the rest of humanity. Ralph Waldo Emerson thought poets had a keener perceptive capacity; for some of us, that means hyper-vigilance, PTSD symptoms, obsessive-compulsive or manic-depressive disorder. It takes a lot out of you to pay close attention, whether you're trying to comprehend driving directions or if that is truly a mountain lion behind the bush.

Doubtful that there are mountain lions in downtown Benicia, leastwise at this time of year when the hills are alive with field mice and fledgling birds. For an afternoon, we poets will be safe. . .

Jannie M. Dresser is a 58-year-old San Francisco Bay Area poet with Central Valley roots. She teaches poetry, hosts poetry salons, and often leads a poem-a-day online workshop for those who dare.

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