Dana Gioia, poet and former boss of the National Endowment for the Arts, many years ago wrote a book titled “Does Poetry Matter?” The inside back page essay in yesterday’s NYTimes Book Review by Robyn Cresswell (poetry editor of The Paris Review) had this to say about “Egypt: The Cultural…
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Snowing. It is snowing. It’s snowing. I don’t have to say, “It’s snowing out,” because it snows out, not in. You’d never say, “It’s snowing in.” The snow snows like the rain rains. Snowing means snowflakes falling. Have you ever seen or heard those many words for “snow” that Eskimos are…
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The next regular breakfast meeting of Greater Lowell Area Democrats will be held tomorrow – Saturday February 19, 20011 at 8am at the Independence Grill at the Radisson Hotel in Chelmsford. The regular agenda will include: discussion of the upcoming Democratic Convention caucus results ; the 5th District and the legislative redistricting plans; and host committee…
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Here’s a poem from a warm spell during a February long ago. In addition to being in a couple of my books, this one was included in the anthology “Line Drives: 100 Contemporary Baseball Poems” edited by Brooke Horvath and Tim Wiles and published by Southern Illinois University Press.—PM . Spring Fever .…
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MassMoments tells us this morning that in 1849 – the first American-made Valentine cards were created and sold in Worcester, Massachusetts by Mt. Holyoke graduate Esther Howland. Modeled on the English-style Valentine, her fancy designs, embossed, cut and colored paper along with romantic sentiments and hidden messages soon grew into a…
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All writers, non-writers, and anti-writers, please take notice. This estimable hyper-local blog will host the Third Annual Community Haiku Project in April as one of Lowell’s contributions to National Poetry Month. Start your creative engines, and put on your haiku shoes because we’ll be looking for the choicest of the…
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George Koumantzelis photographed this historic event at the Smith Baker Center in June 1988, on the eve of the dedication of the Jack Kerouac Commemorative. More than 1,000 people attended what was described as the most important poetry reading in America of that year. Shown here on stage are Allen…
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Did you see it for one two three minutes at about 5 p.m.? Pink and blue and pink and pink and blue sky. Sunset pink and blue. Blue sky. Pink and pink and blue sunset. Blue and pink and blue blue blue and pink sky. Pink and blue. Pink and…
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Judith Dickerman-Nelson of Lowell and Vermont has three prose poems about the Cambodian refugee experience in the online journal Blue Lake Review. Read them here, and support the journal if you appreciate the work.
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Lowell-rooted poet Joe Donahue is one of the subjects of an essay titled “Apocalypticism: A Way Forward for Poetry” in the Chicago Review. Read the essay by Peter O’Leary here. Donahue has spent years mastering long serial poems that combine elements of mysticism, esotericism, protest, and the alienation of the…
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