This week’s rain and thaw are not good for ice on local ponds, brooks, and lakes, but January is hockey season, so I thought I’d dig this composition out of the vault this morning. The poem was first published in my second full-length collection of poems, Middle Distance (1989). Sweeney’s…
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“Wonderful radio, Marvelous radio, Wonderful radio, Radio, radio . . .” —Elvis Costello When I was a kid I had a black transistor radio about the size of my hand that I would take to bed and listen to until I fell asleep. My stations across the dial played rock…
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Jim Blute of the Facebook group “You Know You’re From Lowell If…” posted a link to ebay.com for this 1854 letter on Jan. 5, 2014: “In the 19th Century, Lowell, Mass., was known for its textile industry and for ‘mill girls,’ New England women who worked in the mills. It’s…
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This poem, from Tom Sexton’s recent book Bridge Street at Dusk (Loom Press, 2012), connects to the “Moody Gardens” post below.—PM . Manny He was a minor god of the underworld whose euphonious name brought no reply if mentioned during the day, a lounge singer, a god of sirens and…
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOvak8xeMtc[/youtube]
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With snow flying outside, at 5.45 a.m. today all the smoke alarms in our house began beeping in a way that seemed extra loud. My wife, son, and I threw on some clothes and rushed into the hallway upstairs to check for smoke. Nothing. My wife sped over to the…
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Dust of Snow The way a crow Shook down on me The dust of snow From a hemlock tree . Has given my heart A change of mood And saved some part Of a day I had rued. —Robert Frost (1874-1963) . “Frost’s own poetical education began in San Francisco…
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Chinese Pie (Web photo courtesy of citronlimette.com)
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Chinese Pie or Pâté chinois is a French-Canadian version of shepherd’s pie that at one time was so popular that it would appear on school lunch menus in French Catholic parishes and even some public schools in Greater Lowell. The origin is not certain and may be related to Canadian…
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