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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…
Read More »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…
Read More »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…
Read More »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…
Read More »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…
Read More »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…
Read More »With increasing discussion about renovating the Smith Baker Center near Lowell City Hall, I went to the vault to get this essay written in the moment in 1989. Let’s hope we can revive the Smith Baker Center and offer the public inspiring events like Maya Angelou’s appearance there.—PM . A Day That…
Read More »I’ve posted this poem from 1978 on the blog before. It was written soon after the experience that provided the brief story thread. In those days, I was constantly on the lookout for images and incidents that could feed a new composition. I wanted to write, write, write. It’s a slight piece, but has…
Read More »While not born in Lowell – Lucy Larcom is recognized as a woman of Lowell and important part of the Lowell story. Lucy Larcom lived a full life after her Lowell experience as a writer and teacher first in Illinois then back in Massachusetts. She went on to become one…
Read More »I learned this poem from a friend in the mid-1970s. We were part of a bi-weekly writing workshop at the Andover, Mass., public library called The Poets’ Lab. The group stayed together for three or four years, branching out to do readings in most of the towns and cities in…
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