Jennifer Pickering
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Jennifer J. O’Neill-Pickering grew up in an extended
farming family north of Sacramento, CA. She has worn
many hats including: community muralist, working on a
tomato harvester, assembling air pumps in a factory in
New York, visual and literary artist, mother, support staff
of the California State Legislature , and teaching art at
Cosumnes River College. She has an MA in Studio Art
from California State University Sacramento. Her Black
and White Pen and Ink drawings were featured at the
Black Mountain College Poetry Series. Her poetry has
appeared across the United States including in Heresies,
Yellow Silk, Earth Daughters #63, Sacramento Anthology:
100 poems 2006. In 2008, Jennifer was selected to
participate in the Artist Residency Institute, sponsored by
the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission (SMAC)
was recently awarded a grant from the SMAC, to continue
teaching art and poetry at St. John’s Shelter for Women
and Children. The shelter was recently featured on
Oprah, to focus attention on poverty and homelessness
in America. You can contact here.
farming family north of Sacramento, CA. She has worn
many hats including: community muralist, working on a
tomato harvester, assembling air pumps in a factory in
New York, visual and literary artist, mother, support staff
of the California State Legislature , and teaching art at
Cosumnes River College. She has an MA in Studio Art
from California State University Sacramento. Her Black
and White Pen and Ink drawings were featured at the
Black Mountain College Poetry Series. Her poetry has
appeared across the United States including in Heresies,
Yellow Silk, Earth Daughters #63, Sacramento Anthology:
100 poems 2006. In 2008, Jennifer was selected to
participate in the Artist Residency Institute, sponsored by
the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission (SMAC)
was recently awarded a grant from the SMAC, to continue
teaching art and poetry at St. John’s Shelter for Women
and Children. The shelter was recently featured on
Oprah, to focus attention on poverty and homelessness
in America. You can contact here.
Cache Creek Spirit Walk
The red tailed hawk
hunts the creek,
blue zigzag through the valley floor,
mapping the path of deer and bobcat
snap of twig in this morning of light
printing chapters of their living
on clay inked with rain,
a history preceding our own booted entries,
past cottonwoods, thin crisscross of leaves
bassinette to seed, duvet to buck and doe,
in groves of oak hung with fruit of galls-
empty wombs of wasp,
where slough turtles sun on islands of logs
to the parting of the alders at the point bar,
gravel of beds spread with distant mountains
The creek transforming,
channeling,
reading the terrain
like a fortune teller a life line
inviting those to dive into the spirit,
dwell with beaver,
feed with otter,
spawn with minnow,
quench a thirst in the dry season,
singing an ancient song
spilling from
ipods and concert halls,
raised in praise around campfires,
echoed in the sanctuary of caves.
The red tailed hawk
hunts the creek,
blue zigzag through the valley floor,
mapping the path of deer and bobcat
snap of twig in this morning of light
printing chapters of their living
on clay inked with rain,
a history preceding our own booted entries,
past cottonwoods, thin crisscross of leaves
bassinette to seed, duvet to buck and doe,
in groves of oak hung with fruit of galls-
empty wombs of wasp,
where slough turtles sun on islands of logs
to the parting of the alders at the point bar,
gravel of beds spread with distant mountains
The creek transforming,
channeling,
reading the terrain
like a fortune teller a life line
inviting those to dive into the spirit,
dwell with beaver,
feed with otter,
spawn with minnow,
quench a thirst in the dry season,
singing an ancient song
spilling from
ipods and concert halls,
raised in praise around campfires,
echoed in the sanctuary of caves.