Better Benner and a friend self-published the book “Look Who Has Come to My Door” about Benner’s experiences with her neighbors. Jason Schoonover/jason.schoonover@austindailyherald.com

As Betty Benner, 89, stood below the arbor across the sidewalk to her southeast Austin home, she didn’t need to look far to see signs of her connections with neighbors.

The arbor and plants vining up the trellises were bought by a neighbor, as were a few trees on the lawn. Such acts of kindness aren’t lost on Benner. In fact, she has her own way of recognizing the people who visit and interact with her: She writes poetry about the interactions.

Benner has written poetry for more than 80 years, but she typically writes with a small audience in mind: She writes for her friends, neighbors, family and herself.

In April, Benner and friend published Vennie Eline White self published a book about just that: “Look Who Has Come to My Door.” And Benner loved the book’s subhead chosen by her White: “Betty Benner Celebrates Her Visitors with Poetry.”

“It’s about people who have come to see me,” she said.

 ‘My life story’

To Benner, writing poetry isn’t a money-making endeavor or necessarily even a strive for publication. It’s about communicating with her friends and family.

“Poetry’s the way I communicate,” she said.

Mostly, Benner writes narrative poems about the people she meets and encounters.

“My poems are the story of my life,” she said.

The poem “Tea and Trim” chronicles a neighbor’s visits to bring tea and help Benner trim her nails, since she can no longer see well enough to trim them herself due to macular degeneration. The book also features a picture of the neighbor and Benner.

Another poem, inspired by William Carlos Williams’ “This is Just to Say,” talks about a neighbor leaving rhubarb and cucumbers on her doorstep, so Benner wrote a poem of appreciation.

Another was on neighbor Bruce Heiny singing Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young” on Benner’s 89th birthday.

She makes sure the subjects of her poems get copies, and she said they almost always appreciate the gesture.

“The fact that I thought enough about our contact to put it into writing, I think that pleases them,” Benner said.

Benner also mails several poems to friends and family who don’t live in the area, but she says it can sometimes cost a good amount of money, but she says it’s worth it.

Better Benner and a friend self-published the book “Look Who Has Come to My Door” about Benner’s experiences with her neighbors. Jason Schoonover/jason.schoonover@austindailyherald.com

Often when she email friends or relatives, she’ll just write a poem in the message.

White came up with the name and theme of “Look Who Has Come to My Door.” Benner and White met when White taught at Riverland Community College, and Benner taught developmental reading classes at the college.

Eight decades of poetry

Benner can recall and recite the first poem she wrote as a first-grader: “Red Sled.” The poem was simple:

“Red

Sled.”

Two words. Two lines. When her teacher asked if there was anymore to the poem, Benner said that was all.

“But I’ve written poems ever since then,” she said.

But she credits her mother, Helene Marguerite Hoberg, with introducing her to poetry. Though she never wrote poetry, she was a fan of it and memorized “Thanatopsis” by William Cullen Bryant.

“She didn’t write it.” she said. “She just loved to read it.”

Benner’s poetry comes in part from a lifelong love of words. While she likes many poems, she prefers writing narrative poems and haikus, a style which the first line is five syllables, the second seven and the third line is five syllables.

However, Benner has found over the years that many people don’t embrace poetry.

But that hasn’t kept her from pursuing her passion and interacting with people who share it.

Benner has been involved with the Rural America Writers Center, and she’d often go to hear a writer speak or to read her own poetry. But now that she can’t drive, she isn’t able to get there for the sessions. She also had to give up a writers group in town.

But she still shares poems via emails each week with an online writers group.

Benner grew up in Mankato and graduated from Mankato State Teachers College with degrees in English and physical education. She taught a few year before she focused on raising her family.

She’s lived in Austin since 1950 when she moved here with her first husband, who taught at Austin High School.

Benner has mostly self-published a few books or published books with relatives or friends.

She published “Measure That We are Here” with her nephew, David Suess, which paired her poems and his pictures.

In 1998 and 1999, Benner produced two editions of “The Mill Pond Journal” in which she collected poems from area residents.

Writing at least two poems a week, Benner said her computer is filled with more poems than she can county — and that doesn’t include the poems she wrote in notebooks before computers, many of which she no longer has.

She occasionally submits poetry to certain publications, and she’s also written essays.

On her computer, Benner’s poems are organized alphabetically rather than subject or date, but she can typically find a specific poem on the computer.

‘I never quit writing poetry’

Today, Benner has macular degeneration and can’t see well, but she can still write with a magnifier on her computer and magnifier she keeps on her kitchen table.

“Writing poetry is something that has kind of saved me,” she said. “Because there’s a lot I can’t do because I can’t see, but I can still see enough to write poems, and that gives me a good feeling to do that.”

She says writing keeps her going, and she’s thankful that she can still write with her computer and with her magnifying glass.

Nothing cures macular degeneration, but she receives injections to help keep it at bay, and she takes high doses of certain vitamins. She’s told her children to watch for the signs to catch it early.

Benner also has arthritis and walks with a cane, but she says poetry has always helped her.

“It’s so difficult to get around because you can’t get around on your own when you can’t drive,” she said. “I dropped out of quite a number of things, but I never quit writing poetry.”

“Tea and Trim”

By Betty Benner from “Look Who Has Come to My Door”

She comes flying across the driveway

That separates our two houses

Carrying two cups of steaming tea,

Coming to trim my nails,

A task that macular degeneration

Makes difficult for me to perform.

We chat and sip for some time

(Is this how ‘gossip’ gets its name?),

Then turn to the business of the day.

I sit at the end of the couch,

Lamp spotlighting my hand.

She pulls up a chair,

A look of concentration on her face.

I prefer my nails short,

To the quick, perhaps.

Her preference is for length and whiteness.

She does it my way.

Asks, “Is that short enouch?”

After working each nail,

After buffing each with emery board

To smooth the sharp edges.

She gathers the empty cups.

“I will mark on my calendar,”

She says with a smile,

“to come back in two weeks.”

I mark mine too—

Tea and Trim in Two Weeks.

I will make the tea next time—

Chai, perhaps.

And I will purchase a new clipper.

She waves from the driveway,

Cups held by the handle in her other hand.