Poet Laureate

Hakim is Benicia's 10th Poet Laureate and will serve from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2028.

Every month the First Tuesday Poetry Group will select a poem to highlight as the Poem of the Month. Below is July's selection.

It doesn't know it's adding cells,

it doesn't know it's re-wiring neurons. Unaware of its own growth,

it's going about its business

as it returns to our backyard feeder all summer long.

Does it know that in another month or so it's going to fly several hundred miles, or will it just leave

when the feeling overtakes it? Before I came here,

half a century ago,

there was some indecision, some hemming and hawing, some questions, some planning,

but I've heard that there are people who just go about their business, and then one day, leave.

I'm not one of them,

but I've dreamed of being that bird.

POET LAUREATE