As Trasna continues to celebrate National Poetry Month, we also note that this week marked the one-hundred and ninth anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. The ship was constructed by Harland and Wolff in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and its last port of call was Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland.…
Poet Anthony Febo did his best work in Lowell for a long time, but has moved on with a family and new goals as a teacher and writer. Kudos to “Febo” for publishing his first book, “Becoming an Island” (Game Over Books, 2021). Please consider ordering a copy. He may…
Tom Brady By Sean Casey If you are from New England, you might have a question: Who is Tom Brady? In society today, a lot depends on Tom Brady. It’s Tom Brady this, Tom Brady that, but few New Englanders know just who or what Tom Brady is. You can’t…
Grand Jeté or the Great Leap in Popular American Ballet By Malcolm Sharps [Author suggestion: Listen to Copeland’s Appalachian Spring while reading this] No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and…
For the month of March we have been showcasing writers and writing who have engaged with the Irish language. On the final post for this month Trasna is pleased to share the work of poet, Dairena Ní Chinnéide, a bilingual poet from the West Kerry Gaeltacht of Corca Dhuibhne. Ní…
Peuo Tuy is the author of Khmer Girl (2014) in which the poem below appears. She is a contributor to the anthology Atlantic Currents: Connecting Cork and Lowell (2020). Running Water & Soap Suds By Peuo Tuy R.I.P. 3.4.21 Ngem Chea My Grandmother’s mocha-colored hands mingle with soap suds underneath…
Tom Sexton lives in Alaska most of the time and sometimes Down East in Maine. He and his wife, Sharyn, are bicoastal citizens of North America. He grew up in Lowell and stayed through high school years, and has come back regularly to check on the city. He’s in the…
In the spirit of Lowell Walks, here’s a reprise of a blog post from March 2009. Michael Creasey, then-national park superintendent, joined me for a hike along the Pawtucket Canal, the western reach. This sketch appears as a sidebar in my book MILL POWER, about the Lowell comeback starting in…
March 17, 2021 – With the pandemic lockdown still upon us, we are deprived of our “traditional” celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. This Paul Marion post from March 17, 2011, captures what Lowell is usually like today. For me, it evokes some nostalgia and brings some hopefulness for the not-too-distant…
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, here’s a post from eleven years ago complete with some of the comments left at that time. Even though corned beef is not regularly consumed in Ireland, we eat a lot of it on St Patrick’s Day. But I have a couple of questions:…
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