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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…
Read More »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…
Read More »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…
Read More »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…
Read More »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.
Read More »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…
Read More »Picking up on Tony Sampas’s documentary photographs of Cote’s Market on Salem Street, here’s an excerpt from a poem by Marie Louise St. Onge that was published in the book “French Class: French Canadian-American Writings on Identity, Culture, and Place” (Loom Press, 1999).—PM . from One Vegetable and Silence for…
Read More »Tom Sexton sent a new poem from the coast of Maine where he’s wintering more easily than in the Alaskan icebox. He’s working on a new book of poems. Lowell (and all that that contains) is the subject. Look for the new collection in the fall. In the meantime, mark…
Read More »Brian Williams in 2006 reported on the back story of Robert Frost’s poem written for President Kennedy. See the clip of Frost reading and find out what happened. This is our Robert Frost of the Merrimack Valley, who grew up in Lawrence and graduated from Lawrence High School. Here’s the…
Read More »While the blizzard blows and snows, boston.com is inviting readers to become haiku writers. Here’s the link. I’ll give mine exclusively to rh.com: . Snow blows right to left, Going somewhere else to stick. My white cat stays curled. . —Paul Marion (c) 2010
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