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Today is Flag Day which observes the June 14, 1777, vote by the Second Continental Congress adopting a national flag of the United States which was to be “thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.” In…
Read More »Aristotelian Nights By David Daniel Eddie Hayward was one of my boys in high school. Big E we called him. An amiable goofball, he was tall and soft-bodied with curly brown hair. If he were an actor and still young he’d play lead in the John C. Reilly story. He…
Read More »This month Trasna is featuring writers participating in Words Ireland National Mentoring Programme. Every year, 22 emerging writers are selected for the program in the areas of literary fiction, creative non-fiction, children’s/YA fiction, and poetry. Each are paired with mentors. Featured this week is poet Billy Fenton. On participating in Words Ireland, he…
Read More »Equality and Justice: What Can We Do? By Anthony Nganga Dear Community Members, The protests precipitated by the police killing of George Floyd and numerous other black Americans are an indication of people’s frustrations from deliberate inequalities and injustices they have faced for a very long time. It has become…
Read More »The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. The peaceful protests continue amidst emerging proposals for policy change, but will they amount to anything? Longtime Boston leader and community activist Hubie Jones, in his unpublished book Black in Boston: A Lover’s Quarrel, came to understand the…
Read More »Best Back Seat Passenger By Nancye Tuttle My grandson Jack turned 16 on April 4. He’s a tall, handsome kid with a winning smile and friendly personality. Like other Massachusetts 16-year-olds, he couldn’t wait for the big day because it meant one thing — he could get his learner’s permit.…
Read More »Eagle River Virus By Mike McCormick I’m sitting on my deck listening to the ebullient calls of ruby-crowned kinglets as they flit from branch to branch high atop birch and spruce trees. My wife Katy is transplanting geraniums from inside our arctic entry room to outdoor flower boxes. We are…
Read More »Diary in the Time of Coronavirus (8) by Paul Hudon May 31 In Consciousness, his only volume of memoirs, John Updike proposes two life-defining questions. First, Why me? Second, Why here? Identity and place. He paired the right questions, only, being Updike, he put them back to front. Place comes first…
Read More »My co-blogger Marie Sweeney writes about making slumgullion at home. The first time I read that word I knew I had to work it in to a poem. Turns out the dish she makes (and a lot of us make) has a bunch of names. I only knew it as…
Read More »Orchardist and artist Linda Hoffman writes about fruit in this post from her blog on May 31. Blueberries on the way. And here’s her latest post from June 7 about the way water moves on Old Frog Pond Farm in Harvard, Mass. Early Morning Pond View, 2020, watercolor (Linda…
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