Sad-Eyed Lady By David Daniel Mornings she’s out there on the sidewalk, costumed in a long satiny smock and wearing a spiked crown, both the color of tarnished bronze. Not clothing for not-quite spring; but this is about timing. April is coming and she’s an enticement, representing—I have to…
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Isolation Scenes By Doug Sparks I’ve noticed a pair of robins who occasionally perch on the roof kitty-corner to our living room. So far, I’ve been flattering myself that this is some kind of Disney idyll — that the birds are enamored of my two young girls, and are checking…
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We are all hoping to get through to the other side of this virus crisis. We don’t know what the conditions will be. More than 16 million people have filed for unemployment benefits–the real number of jobless people is much higher. There is much pain and suffering ahead in terms…
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Welcome today’s Lowell Walk. In this episode we visit the Lowell Memorial Auditorium and learn about the many monuments and historic artifacts on the grounds and within the building: If the above video window doesn’t work for you, follow this link to our YouTube page and watch the video from…
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Blood on the Tracks By John Wooding The world is hurting. Tens of thousands are sick and too many have died. We are confronting a catastrophe, and there are few causes for optimism. In all of this, however, there are some small sparks of hope, one of which is our…
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“Gov ordered statewide lockdown until April 7. Nonessential biz’s to close physical operations. We are really in this now.” —from a 3/23/2020 email from Paul Marion, writer and Loom Press founder We Are Really In This Now By Emily Ferrara At Swamp Locks Dam on the downstream side the Great…
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Influenza 1918 by Jane Brox Writer Jane Brox grew up in Dracut on her family’s farm. Now living on the coast of Maine, she is the author of several books including Here and Nowhere Else: Late Seasons of a Farm and Its Family, Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light (a…
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A regular contributor offered these photos of Spring and suggested the following from the volume of poems by William Carlos Williams, published in 1923, was a fitting accompaniment for the photos and for our time. Spring and All By the road to the contagious hospital under the surge of the…
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The False God of Dow by George Chigas At the height of Cambodia’s economic and military power during the Angkor Period (ninth to fifteenth centuries), when a drought or disease threatened the kingdom’s prosperity and security, the ruler, believed to be semi-divine, a deva-raja or god-king, would summon his high…
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