Most Californians probably know that the brilliant orange California poppy is our state flower. But most of us don’t know that this familiar wildflower was immortalized in verse by our state’s first poet laureate, Ina Coolbrith.

With her family, ten-year old Coolbrith came to gold-rush California in the company of famous scout James P. Beckwourth. Settled in Los Angeles, she began writing, and after moving to San Francisco, she worked on the Overland Monthly with Bret Harte and Charles Warren Stoddard. There she continued to write poems like this lovely sonnet, "The California Poppy":

Thy satin vesture richer is than looms
Of Orient weave for raiment of her kings.
Not dyes of old Tyre, not precious things
Regathered from the long forgotten tombs
Of buried empires, not the iris plumes
That wave upon the tropic’s myriad wings,
Not all proud Sheba's queenly offerings,
Could match the golden marvel of thy blooms.
For thou art nurtured from the treasure veins
Of this fair land; thy golden rootlets sup
Her sands of gold—of gold thy petals spun.
Her golden glory, thou! on hills and plains
Lifting, exultant, every kingly cup,
Brimmed with the golden vintage of the sun.

Today, Coolbrith’s poetry finds few readers, but in her time she was a strong presence in California’s literary community, an important mentor for Jack London and other writers.

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