JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground
HTML
<ul>
<li><a class="close">x</a>text</li>
<li><a class="close">x</a>more text</li>
<li><a class="close">x</a>wohoooo more text</li>
</ul>
JavaScript
$.extend( $.fn, {
textnodes: function() {
return $(this).contents().filter(function(){
return this.nodeType === 3;
});
}
});
var nodes = $("ul li").textnodes();
console.log( nodes );