Lois Requist, Poet Laureate 2012-2014

Lois Requist attended San Franciso State University, where she received a BA & MA in English, with an emphasis on Creative Writing. She specialized in poetry. Over time, she has written fiction, nonfiction, and journalism for various media.

She has published a novel, Where Lilacs Bloom, and a nonfiction book about her adventure in a RV, called RVing Solo Across America....without a cat, dog, man, or gun. See her website.

Her poem, "The God of War" was part of the I Read the News Today, Oh Boy! exhibit at the Benicia Library. She contributed to Poem Homes, volunteered to help with the Poetry Out Loud contest, and attended First Tuesday Poetry Group.

She chaired the Open Government Commission for the City of Benicia and was President of the League of Women Voters of Benicia. Previously, she was president of the Diablo Valley League of Women Voters and served a term on the board of the League of Women Voters of California.

In the last year, she has worked to establish the Benicia Literary Arts.

A partial list of publications include: Alaska Quarterly, Amelia, Contra Costa Times, Contra Costa Sun, Futurific Magazine, Monterey Life, Oakland Tribune, Oh! Idaho, Old West, Rocking Chair Reader: Coming Home, Sacramento Magazine, San Francisco Examiner, Survivors Review, and Trillum Literary Journal.

Prizes won include: The Academy of American Poets, California Writers Club, Connecticut River Review, Grandmother Earth XIV: 2008, Gulf Coast Writers Association, Missouri State Poetry Society, North Texas Professional Writers Association, San Francisco Browning Society, Soul-Making Literary Competition, Tennessee Writers Alliance, Valley Writers' Guild, Spencerville, Ontario, 2003 -- Short Story, 2005 -- Creative Nonfiction.

Poetry

See Her Poetry Reading - October 5, 2012 at the Library

On the Water's Edge

I see posts,old pilings, parts of piers

Little houses on the water

History gathers here

Not only mine

Drawn here from a dry Idaho

An irrigated desert

Those who earlier lived on this edge

Fished, grew babies, brothels, and bars

Churches, too, schools

The water's edge

Has always pulled humans

Like the moon's tidal tug

For food or fish or possibilities

Of what connects and what separates us

The sun and moon rise here

Sometimes the moon sends its beams

Sashaying orange across the water

It is good to walk and live and be part

Of now and the past

To spot a ship on the horizon

Sails billowing my imagination

With what will be after

Along this edge

More of her poems can be found in anthologies in the catalog.

updated 07-2014