Author Archive

Frank Wagner: A New Poem

Five Rows Down and Three Across by Frank Wagner   Five rows down and three across Through wild high grass of the burial ground We looked for old laid bones that could not be found. A generation has passed since his body was laid, Under piled dirt this skin and…

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Joe Blair: A Prose Sketch

Joe Blair is an occasional contributor to this publication. He lives in Iowa but grew up in the Merrimack Valley. His first book By the Iowa Sea: A Memoir (2012, Simon & Schuster) established him as a national voice. This prose sketch first appeared on Facebook in November, 2020.  IT…

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Denis Barrett of Ireland Shares His Nation’s Joy About Joe Biden’s Victory

Two days ago, Denis Barrett, coordinator of Cork Learning City, wrote to colleagues including John Wooding, former professor and provost at UMass Lowell who leads Lowell: City of Learning. The two partner organizations promote lifelong learning in their cities, and this year brought out the Cork-Lowell writing anthology ATLANTIC CURRENTS,…

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Paul Marion: A Poem

Catching Perfect Spirals Trees change at night to yellow, orange, brown. On warm afternoons my friends and I, boys and girls, Raced downfield to catch every perfect spiral. We tackled each other as if trying to hurt one another When all we wanted was to be good at what we…

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Paul Marion: A Prose Poem

Although I was born in Lowell (est. 1826), in the Centralville section, I grew up in Dracut (est. 1701) from the age of two through my college years. My neighborhood’s colonial-era name was New Boston Village, but that wasn’t used when I was there. We didn’t have a name for…

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