Long Purples by Paul Marion My wife Rosemary and I live in a townhouse condo atop a former ski slope in Amesbury, Mass., just uphill from the compact but busy downtown. Called Powow Hill for the original residents in this area, the 330-foot hill is crowned with a small public…
Carpets and Fish By Paul Marion For years I’ve admired a photograph made by a friend, a picture of three young guys with fishing poles on the Aiken Street Bridge or Joseph R. Ouellette Bridge, named for a fallen soldier, over the Merrimack River in Lowell. The guys are taking…
Looking Back to 1968 by Paul Marion In late November 1968, my friend Susan April walked three miles in the rain from her home in Dracut, Mass., to buy the new Beatles double album at a Lowell record shop and hitchhiked home when the paper bag from the store began…
Michael Ansara of Carlisle, Mass., who has family roots in Lowell, has published a first-person account of the social turmoil of the 1960s and ’70s, a time when he was a young activist, fired-up in pursuit of peace and justice. His book, The Hard Work of Hope: A Memoir is…
Sky Bar by Paul Marion The barbershop on upper Merrimack Street had a candy vending machine against the long side wall where customers waited in padded steel chairs. When I had a dime, I’d slot the coin and pull the handle for a Sky Bar in a yellow wrapper with…
From middle Massachusetts, Bill O’Connell sent us a poem about hardball math to show there are many dimensions to the old ballgame. Bill is a past contributor to the blog and The Lowell Review. His recent book is When We Were All Still Alive (Open Field Press, 2021). The…
Poems for Today by Chath pierSath These four poems by Chath pierSath, a past contributor to this blog, were written in response to recent headlines and the larger global conversation about means and ends. Chath is known for is writing about current affairs and historical matters. As an engaged artist,…
Robert Frost in Amesbury, Mass. (1897-1898). Who Knew? Well, somebody knew about this but I didn’t even though I’ve been in Amesbury for eight years. Plus, I’ve studied authors of the region since reading Thoreau’s “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers” in the 1970s. How did I miss…
Tom Sexton (photo by Kevin Harkins) On the Street, Tom & Me Around 2010, I wrote a series of posts for the Howe blog about my weekly hikes in Lowell. Usually I walked alone on Sunday mornings when the streets are quiet, often taking notes about what I saw and…
Tom Sexton at Northern Essex Community College, Haverhill, Mass. (photos by Kevin Harkins) Farewell to Our Friend Tom Sexton, American Poet (1940-2025) We learned from his wife Sharyn Sexton that our friend and fellow contributor to this blog Tom Sexton passed away at home in Alaska on March 12…
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