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On a Rhine River trip with his wife Rosemary in 2019, Paul Marion was transported back to 1969 by a dubbed-into-German classic American film. Here’s a poem he wrote about the experience. Also, coincidentally, this Friday, Oct. 9, would have been the 80th birthday of John Lennon, who is mentioned…
Read More »Siggy and Tina By Steve O’Connor More from Germany. Here’s a Steve O’Connor essay from Lowell Sunrise, 2008 Tina is from Bavaria. A few years ago, she was sent from Germany to work as an intern at the Puma branch in Westford where my wife worked. Puma is a German…
Read More »Throughout October, Trasna will focus on the Celtic festival of Samhain, known better to Americans as Halloween. The holiday originated in Ireland and celebrates that time of year when the veil between this world and the next grows thin, and life seems more mysterious. This week we feature Peter Sirr, a well-known poet, and…
Read More »Joe Blair of Iowa posted this lyrical prose on Facebook today. He allowed us to reprint it here. He’s got roots in Greater Lowell and is a past contributor to the Howe blog. Joe is the author of By the Iowa Sea: A Memoir (2012), which O, The Oprah Magazine…
Read More »Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) was a German-American poet and writer who was a contemporary of Jack Kerouac but never a part of the Beat Generation writer scene. Still, Bukowski, who was known as the “Poet of Skid Row” and was called by Time magazine “the laureate of American lowlife” had a…
Read More »Susan April sent us a new essay about a time when she was growing up in Lowell in the Highlands neighborhood. I don’t want to give away the turn in the narrative, so I’ll leave it here. Susan is a past contributor to this publication. Her work has appeared in…
Read More »Located primarily in the northwest of County Clare, the Burren, is one of the world’s most unique landscapes. It means “great rock” in Irish (Boireann), and is dominated by thick successions of sedimentary rocks, often compared to a lunar landscape. In the following essay and series of photographs, Clare Mulvany take…
Read More »A Different Kind of Dying By David Daniel Once a year, in late September, the town holds a drop-off at the DPW garage for used electronics. In advance of the event, notices appear in the community weekly newspaper, and on flyers affixed to telephone poles: UNWANTED TVS, COMPUTER MONITORS, PHONES…
Read More »The Kerouac Book River “The Kerouac Book River is inspired by the legendary Merrimack and Concord rivers, which run through the author’s hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts. At the “source” of the river is the canon of first editions, beginning in 1950 with The Town and the City. Plentiful waters stir to…
Read More »Joe McGowan, a native of Mullaghmore, Co. Sligo, is a noted historian, novelist, folklorist, and an acclaimed storyteller. Readers of Trasna will be familiar with his talent as Joe launched our first issue of Trasna with his piece entitled, “May: Mary’s Month or Baal’s?” Joe’s essay thoughtfully explored the “green…
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