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Nothing Gold Can Stay . Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay. . —Robert Frost (from “New…
Read More »In honor of the victory by the San Francisco Giants in this year’s World Series, former Lowell Sun reporter Dave Perry sent along this contribution: I dreamt of Willie Mays last night. It was the first time in many years Mays’ slightly bowlegged visage showed up in my sleep, but…
Read More »Legendary San Francisco poet and founder of City Lights Bookstore and publishing company Lawrence Ferlinghetti is a baseball fan, too. The card-carrying Beat writer and publisher of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” and several books by Jack Kerouac, including “Book of Dreams” and “Pomes All Sizes,” has a most fitting poem for this…
Read More »Today’s NYTimes includes this article about the Harlem-based Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of the NY Public Library acquiring a massive archive of papers from author and performer Maya Angelou. The story prompted me to recall Maya Angelou’s visit to Lowell in 1989 as a guest of Middlesex Community College. Following is…
Read More »Here’s the schedule for the 2nd annual Boston Book Festival. Note that the featured authors include Tom Perrotta and Ann Hood, who were two of the big names at this year’s Kerouac Literary Festival in Lowell. Also highlighted are poet and writer Nick Flynn, who appeared at the 2008 Massachusetts Poetry Festival…
Read More »Methuen resident Vincent Spada has published his first book of poems, “One Under the Sun” (Brambleby Books). Interestingly, the Hartfordshire, England-based publisher specializes in books on natural history and poetry. The author works in a Salvation Army Thrift Store. To order the book, visit www.brambleby.co.uk. Following is a sample of…
Read More »In the Boston area, the Dead Poets Society of America, in cooperation with various groups and institutions, is planning to hold the Great Boston Poetry Marathon of 2010 on Monday, October 11th. Starting at sunrise, in Gloucester, and ending at sunset, on Author’s Ridge, poets and poetry lovers will gather…
Read More »The whole inside back page of the NYTimes Book Review today has an essay by Lee Siegel comparing the Tea Party with the Beats (Kerouac, Ginsberg, and the other Beat Generation writers of the 1950s and ’60s). The essay is a cultural stretch in many ways, but makes for surprising…
Read More »Here’s Paul Marion reading his poem, “Dylan Sings to Kerouac”, at Kerouac Park during this past weekend’s Jack Kerouac Literary Festival in Lowell, Massachusetts. (Video posted on YouTube by “spannedy”) [youtube]uuSfWNu9gMY[/youtube]
Read More »It will take me some time to process the multitude of impressions and facts of this past weekend’s Kerouac Festival, but I want to share some initial observations: 1) We accomplished the goal of drawing a larger and more varied literary audience to the city with a broader menu of…
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