Jacki Rigoni

Jacki Rigoni is the author of Seven Skirts from Paloma Press. She lives with her three children in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she served as Poet Laureate of Belmont, California from 2018 to 2021. She has a master’s degree in English from the University of California, Berkeley, and is a credentialed teacher. A finalist for the 2018 Francine Ringold Awards for New Writers, her poems appear in Nimrod International Journal, Moon City Review, Migozine, anthologies, and permanent public art installations. Jacki writes on her site WomanUprising.com and facilitates courses for women at WomanU.com.

Poem on Belonging

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL

Behind beachsand bricks,
beside the corner downspout,
I stood honor guard
in the ceremony of the peonies.

In an aura of soon-summer,
scented rose-ish and curly,
Mom clipped
fat blush blooms
with their frantic black ants,
wrapped them
in damp paper towels
and tin foil,
presented them
to my almost-second-grade hands,
before the first
come out, come out
wherever you are,

when playdate
wasn’t yet a word,
but an unscheduled world
on the other side
of a doorbell,
teeming with neighbor kids,
sprinklers and crayfish,
caterpillars, dirty feet, scabs,
whiffle ball, black-eyed susans,
Queen Anne’s lace,

until barbecued chicken
or bug spray or bedtime
called for us, one by one,
wild entourage of the peonies.

Copyright © 2019 by Jacki Rigoni. Used with permission of the author.

Find Jacki’s books in the library!

Seven Skirts (2021)

Poet Laureate Projects

Appointed by the Council of the City of Belmont in 2018, Jacki Rigoni served as Belmont Poet Laureate through 2021.

Curator, Belmont Poetry Night reading series and open mic

Founder, “Poetry Walk” in collaboration with Belmont Parks & Recreation and Friends of the Belmont Library, an installation of permanent poetry signs featuring past and present poets laureate

Founder, “Holiday Poetry & Caroling”

Curator, “19 Women Poets on the Centennial of the 19th Amendment,” where 19 poets added a line to a 19th Amendment crowdsourced poem.