Jeanne Wagner

I was born in San Francisco in 1943 and was educated at University of California, (B A), and did graduate work at San Francisco State University. I wrote poetry for several years in the 80s and was published in poetry journals Blue Unicorn, Encore Penn State Poetry Journal.

I also won several awards, including the Ina Coolbrith Award. I was a member of the American Poetry Society. I am just recently resuming my interest in poetry writing after a lapse of several years. I live with my husband and son in Kensington, CA, and work as a tax consultant.

Jeanne Wagner is the 1998 winner of the poetry fellowship competition sponsored by Writers at Work in Park City, Ut. The $1,500 first place award includes publication in Quarterly West, a featured reading at the conference, and tuition for the 1998 writers' conference. Congratulations Jeanne!





Canning Peaches

A girl in starched sun-dress,
sitting on the tree-swing,
sways and her body stirs
the air, thickened
with the scent of fallen fruit,
the skin sleeved back,
softest flesh dissolving
on the grass.

You always canned our fruit,
picked before the ripeness
had fully taken hold.
As I watched, you held them
underneath the faucet,
scrubbed the fur and
peeled the skin
around those firm golden globes
that cleft into such clean halves,
leaving open that aching veinous hole,
a small lobotomy of space
where the pit was pulled away.

I'd see them all year long,
consigned to rows of pantry shelf,
fetal curve of slices
floating inside their jars,
a white plaque of paraffin
sealing off the air.


© Jeanne Wagner, 1996


More Poems by Jeanne Wagner

  • Maudie on a Metal Lawn Chair
  • Smoke
  • The Moor


    Poems Copyright, © Jeanne Wagner, 1996


    Updated: 7 October 1996


    The Albany Poetry Workshop