On the eve of the Iowa caucuses and with political ads in heavy rotation on Boston TV stations in advance of the New Hampshire primary, here’s a poem with a bit of politics in it from the vault that goes back to 1988. I rarely use rhyme in compositions, but this one…
Web image by anthony92931 courtesy of commons.wikimedia Along with Henri Marchand’s “fruitcake” essay and my “Oranges at Christmas” essay, the re-appearance of this poem has become part of the Christmas tradition for our blog. I wrote the first draft of this poem in 1976, and worked on it on-and-off for a long…
Web image courtesy of Wikimedia I reached into the vault for a poem from this “time of the season.” —PM . Look At a Dry Leaf . A dry leaf is a physical map: River beds are sap routes Forking off the prime vein. The underside’s not printed, But the…
Earlier today on Facebook, Chath Piersath, a writer, poet, teacher, activist, and artist (and farmer in the region), posted a ringing statement about his optimism as a man in America. Chath has contributed to this blog in the past, so I asked him if I could reprint his thoughts here.…
With all the walking and talking about walking going on in the city, I thought I’d share this poem from 1984, which originally appeared in my book STRONG PLACE: POEMS ’74-’84 and was reprinted in WHAT IS THE CITY? in 2006. In the ’80s, I had a Sunday routine of…
Our far-flung contributor Tom Sexton has air-mailed a new poem from the Northwest. For those not familiar, Tom is among the Lowell High School Distinguished Alumni, a retired professor at University of Alaska and former Poet Laureate of Alaska, and an all around fine man who has written about 15…
A most quotable local author…. from the archive… Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden” was published on August 9, 1852 August 9, 2014 by Marie Posted in Culture, Greater Lowell Leave a Comment On this day August 9, 1852, Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden; or, Life in the Woods” was published. “Walden” details…
For about three hours last night, from the anticipation to the grateful applause, there was a thick layer of happiness spread on the front yard of the Boott Cotton Mills in the form of a return engagement by Lyle Lovett and His Large Band. Again, as in past appearances, they…
American author, poet, civic activist Henry David Thoreau was a man of action when it came to his beliefs and conscience. Learn about his act of “civil disobedience” here in a post from the archive…. July 23, 1846 ~ Thoreau Jailed! Walked in from the Woods… July 23, 2013 by Marie Posted in Greater…
For the Fourth of July, Independence Day, here’s a poem from the nation’s capital. I wrote this prose poem after a family trip to Washington, D.C., in the summer of 2004. There were John Kerry-for-President signs in the windows. GOP posters for “W,” too. Barack Obama was a figure on…