Review by Lo Galluccio http://logalluccio.com

Blood Cocoon, Selected Poems by Connie Fox
Pres :s: Press P.O. Box 792 Rockford, MI 49341
Presapress@aol.com
October 1, 2005
It’s August, that month of hazy zenith summer and the ultimately turning, turning into fall. There are already dead leaves on the sidewalks but we’re not supposed to notice them. Fallen leaves belong to autumn, as so many great jazz singers have intoned. My poet of the month is not a neighborhood maverick, but a far-flung genius from Detroit, MI, who writes up past and present in glorious, strange and tantalizing language.
If Walt Whitman had been a woman, all of nature would have been reconfigured to a different time, zone, place. That is what Connie Fox’s poetry makes me believe. And it’s Whitman who this free verse of gorgeous and engorging poetry reminds me of most.
From the title poem: Blood Cocoon, "small epiphanies you take me into your secrets I’ll take you into mine, rigid white sprouts out of rich decay….Inside Fushia, the world streams, monkeys across the stone faces of god."
The landscape (and inscape) is Brazil, in the first set of poems of the collection. And the modality is intense and sensuous femininity, an exploration of the colors, curves, adornments that make sex both sublime and the life force nocturnal:
"blending red into pink until my lips talk to my eyes red rose on a white door eating strawberries strawberried fingernails…"
The transformations abound, from nature to human, from nature to gods. Again primal sexuality dressed up: "I hitch up her skirt over her sacred black-sueded legs spread sacred black flowers…." From The Dream of the Black Topaz Chamber. And in verse 21 she writes: "Through a plane of crystal and the nipples, peace descends, shroud against Magdalena-Kali face, the image of bloody hands in white…" So she makes reference to two goddesses of Christian and Hindu beliefs, both extreme, both contentious – Kali the destroyer and bringer of life, black mane of hair, many arms and a necklace of men’s skulls around her neck. The Magdalene, who has recently been redeemed – first by Christ and then by scholarly and popular writing as the holy goddess whore and possible partner to Christ. This verse crescendos with: "belief futuring into infinite orgasms of coronary expansion."
And later in this long poem the declaration that: " I believe in legs and disbelieve in wheels, that the elimination of death invites the all-Death to suck the All-Juice out of our world." …"that my glands secret the gods and my closed-eyed inner ecstasy is the why of creation." The poem comes from a sojourn on the Island of Santa Catarina, Brazil.
My favorite poem centers the collection before a devolution into a section on family and scientific cosmic decay. Connie is haunted it seems forever and shaken out of the caresses of ancient earth into the modern realities of time and death…."I pretend to forget for hours, years, but the hum is always there like cosmic microwave background radiation, the deep base HUM…."
Nachtymnen: 1.Night we evolve back into ourselves in veloured liquid sleep, the enemy eyes of the day people attack our DECLARATION OF ANTI-CONSCIOUSNESS…" And more, "I am wrongless, stainless, a shining obelisk of blackvirgindeath tourmaline."
In an end note Connie writes: " So the poetry itself is a kind of Jungian-Freudian Id-history of my entire life, from grandmother to mother to my own adulthood, my own relations with the world around me, more and more inselving until finally, at age 73, I reach a kind of sometimes, not-often ecstatic stasis."
I love this book.
This review was written for The Cambridge Alewife and the Ibbetson Press Review.

LYRICAL SOMERILLE: JENNIFER MATTHEWS
The Somerville News
"Somerville's Most Widely Read Newspaper!"
July 27, 2005

With the frantic pace of contemporary life it is increasingly rare that we have the time to sit back and reflect, and just let things happen to us. In "Silver Waves of Mercury," poet Jennifer Matthews creates a space, sets an atmosphere and lets the reader enjoy the solitude and silent beauty of a Japanese garden. To find out more about Jennifer go to: http://www.jennifermatthews.com/. To have your work considered for the Lyrical send it to: (Doug Holder 25 School St. Somerville, Mass. 02143) dougholder@post.harvard.edu


Silver Waves of Mercury



Japanese garden
Palace of Zen
Mother of Lotus
And blossoming wind...
She passes no judgment
But glides easy like spirit
Over each silken plume...
In this place of solitude
Where contemplation is at it's best...
Answers come inevitably like morning and sun...
I find a seat in the mossy moonlight
Where heaven reflects stillness
On soft water pond

*This article originally appeared in http://www.someothermagazine.com

Off the Shelf with Doug Holder/ The Somerville News/ Interview With Spare Change News

One of the many newspapers hawked on the streets of Somerville and the surrounding area is Spare Change News. What’s unique about Spare Change News is that it is sold by a unique population: the homeless. Founded in 1992 as one of the nations’ first street newspapers to benefit the homeless, Spare Change News’ headquarters is located in the basement of the Old Baptist Church just outside Harvard Square and publishes a twice-a-month paper with a circulation of 8,000. Spare Change’s mission is to provide income and skill development to people who are either homeless themselves or are on the brink of homelessness. Through the writing, production and sale of the paper, participants in this enterprise will hopefully be able to acquire the skills to realize an independent life in the community. Spare Change News provides an avenue for expression and a forum for advocacy for the homeless population. So often the homeless are viewed as unmotivated misfits. Working for Spare Change News can only help change this image of this population. I spoke with Samuel J. Scott , the editor, and Kate E. Bush, the poetry editor, about their experiences with the paper on my Somerville Community Access TV show “Poet to Poet: Writer to Writer.”
One of the many newspapers hawked on the streets of Somerville and the surrounding area is Spare Change News. What’s unique about Spare Change News is that it is sold by a unique population: the homeless. Founded in 1992 as one of the nations’ first street newspapers to benefit the homeless, Spare Change News’ headquarters is located in the basement of the Old Baptist Church just outside Harvard Square and publishes a twice-a-month paper with a circulation of 8,000.
Spare Change’s mission is to provide income and skill development to people who are either homeless themselves or are on the brink of homelessness. Through the writing, production and sale of the paper, participants in this enterprise will hopefully be able to acquire the skills to realize an independent life in the community.
Spare Change News provides an avenue for expression and a forum for advocacy for the homeless population. So often the homeless are viewed as unmotivated misfits. Working for Spare Change News can only help change this image of this population.
I spoke with Samuel J. Scott , the editor, and Kate E. Bush, the poetry editor, about their experiences with the paper on my Somerville Community Access TV show “Poet to Poet: Writer to Writer.”
Doug Holder: Samuel, we discussed the mission of the Spare Change News (SCN). What is your mission as an editor? What’s your vision for the future of the paper?
Samuel J. Scott: One of our purposes is to report on homelessness and poverty in the area, nationally and worldwide. How do I do this? Our offices get press releases, we get tips from sources and we talk to people about what’s going on. We write about about how the governor’s budget might affect homelessness, will Bush cut the HUD budget, things like that. We use our news sources to get a picture of what’s going on. Then I send our reporters out to investigate story.
DH: What’s your vision for SCN?
SC: I have been editor for about a year now. When I came on board I revamped it. I wanted to make it more professional. I wanted it to jump out at you. When you walk down the street I want you to want to buy it. What I want SPN to be is the paper people read when they want to read news about homelessness and poverty. If you read the Herald you are not getting anything. The Globe covers it to an extent. But we have a niche market here. We just cover a certain set of issues. I would like to think we do it better than any newspaper in the area.
DH: Kate, you are the poetry editor who succeeded Don DiVecchio. Do you look for any particular, style or theme in the poetry you review?
Kate E. Bush: Poetry is the ultimate subjective art. My job is difficult because I have to judge something that doesn’t lend itself to judgment. I tend to look at things that deal with homelessness, poverty, and economic injustice. I tend to prefer these themes on a certain level, but I prize quality, and craft over the subject matter.
DH: Are you a poet? What do you write about?
KB: I write about everything. I’ve actually gotten the opportunity to read a lot of different poets. I have found some wonderful poets locally and around the country that I would like to consider my peers in the community.
DH: Sam, do you have homeless writers on staff?
SC: It depends what you mean by writer. I have different sections in the newspaper. Different people write for different sections. The news sections are written by freelance writers or volunteers. We have a section titled: “Voices from the Street,” that is by people who are homeless. This section is full of essays, and stories from people who are currently homeless. These submissions are selected from the mail. I publish a selection from the batch each issue.
DH: If I was looking for work as a reporter with SCN; how would I go about it?
SC: Just give me a call at the office. We are always looking for new reporters. If you are an intern at the Herald or the Globe you are basically going to be answering the phone. When you come to SPN you are going out there reporting on events, interviewing--you are going to be a reporter!
One of our writers went to graduate school for journalism at Columbia University. She sent us a card and wrote that SCN was her inspiration to pursue journalism.
DH: Is SCN strictly a Boston/Cambridge/Somerville newspaper?
SC: It’s a Boston-area newspaper. We don’t tell our vendors where to sell it. If they take a train out to Newton and sell it there; it’s their choice.
DH: What’s your relationship with the other homeless newspaper Whats Up?
SC: Some people think we are in competition. It’s like we are the Globe and they are the Herald. It’s really not true. We have the same mission. We are both working towards the same end; advocating for the homeless. I think we are more news focused, and they focus more on arts, entertainment and culture. We have the same purposes with different means.
DH: You work in an office in the basement of the Old Baptist Church, just outside Harvard Square. It’s quite a narrow winding warren of agencies, offices, etc... down there. You have to contend with the pounding feet of a ballet company above you, and the constant din from this vibrant subculture that thrives below the streets of Cambridge. How do you manage this?
KB: (laughs) We are across the hall from the “Gay and Lesbian Taskforce,” and the “Ethiopian Women’s” Alliance,” to name a few organizations.
SC: It’s never quiet. But that’s good because in the “News” business you want energy. You want things going on around you.
DH: Kate you are leaving to go to graduate school. What do you feel is your legacy?
KB: I tried really hard not to have a block of poems that was just not one poet. I tried my best to find poems that fit a certain theme. It’s a very difficult artistic process to put a group of poems together. I try to find poems that cohere.
DH: Any memorable poets you want to mention?
KB: A Dorchester poet by the name of Mike Igoe. He is very intense and unusual. His poems are quite out of the ordinary.
Go to http://www.homelessempowerment.org/ for more info.






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Subject: Ibbetson Update/Ibbetson Poet Rufus Goodwin Passes at age 70.
Rufus Goodwin walked into my apartment on Ibbetson Street some years ago, and asked me, my wife Dianne and my friend Richard Wilhelm ( the staff at Ibbetson St. at the time) if we would like to publish a book of his "Poems from 42nd Street." It was a beautifully illustrated edition that in the words of John Lentilhorn celebrates the memory of the poet as a vagrant, the homeless one who rides the subway into the sunset, who snatches a song from the curb… " Goodwin wanted to turn away from the avant-garde and academic literary magazines and celebrate the simple things: a sandwich, a well-made bed, an ashcan, a street. He was upset with the trend in poetry that he felt was loud, profane and in your face. Goodwin felt by celebrating the simple things larger truths naturally evolve.

Goodwin, was from a patrician background but had a fascination with the everyday workingman. He was a regular contributor to "Spare Change News," and found out about the press through an article the late Cindy Baron wrote about the Ibbetson Street. He offered to help Ibbetson Street, because he felt it would be the next "City Lights."
Over the years he has helped the Press enormously. He was responsible for getting a feature article about us in The Boston Globe Arts/Leisure section in Feb. 2000. He bought a whole slew of ISBN's for our seminal press, and gave me an introduction to the world of small press publishing.

. One year Goodwin invited myself and Dianne to a gala opening event at Lincoln Center for the American Ballet. The tickets must of easily cost a grand or more. After the performance we were having dinner with him and others under a tent outside of the theatre. All kinds of celebs were in attendance…the whole big deal. One of the guys sitting at the table told me that he too was a guest of Goodwin. I asked him if he worked for Rufus. He said "Yes." I asked him what he did. He replied "I am his doorman." So I don't know if I was part of Rufus' experiment to bring culture to the workingman or what, but they sure broke the mold when they made him!

Doug Holder/ Ibbetson Street Press.


Born in New York City, Rufus Goodwin graduated from Yale University and received an advanced degree in Linguistics from Georgetown University. He was a veteran of the Korean War and served as a foreign correspondent with United Press International in the 1960s. He was assigned to the Vatican while working for UPI and covered Pope Paul VI's first papal trip to the Holy Land in 1964. Later he was a freelance writer in Switzerland and England before returning to the U.S. in the 1980s. He published poetry (praised by James Tate, John Updike, and Mark Strand), novels, nonfiction, opera, and plays—more than forty titles in all. His work in religion led to the books The Story of Prayer and Who Killed the Holy Ghost? Other works include, Mr. President, a prestige bestseller in Germany, and Valentine for a Waitress, which appeared on stage in England. He collaborated with composer and performer Stephen Scotti for Blue Vagabond, Poets Opera, and other works that were performed in New York, Boston, and Martha's Vineyard. He died July 10, 2005 at the age of seventy.
Doug Holder http://www.authorsden.com/douglasholder

List of interviews, books, etc...at Harvard University Libraries

(Doug Holder) Here is a partial list of some of my interviews with poets, my own books, and books that I edited that are archived at the Lamont Poetry Room ( Harvard University) and the Harvard Libraries.
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1
Holder, Doug.


Of all the meals I had before : poems about food and eating /
2007
Book
Holder, Doug.



No one dies at the Au Bon Pain /
2007
Book
Doug Holder



Louisa Solano : the Grolier Poetry Bookshop.
2006
Book
Edited by Doug Holder/Steve Glines


Ames, Lois.
[Interview] [videorecording] /
2005
Visual
Interviewed by Doug Holder


Chase, Naomi Feigelson.
[Interview] [videorecording] /
Interviewed by Doug Holder

Wrestling with my father /
2005
Book
Doug Holder

Houlihan, Joan.
[Interview] [videorecording] /
2005
with Doug Holder

Cramer, Steven, 1953-
[Interview] [videorecording] /
2004
Interview with Doug Holder

Der Hovanessian, Diana
[Interview] / [sound recording]
2004
Interview with Doug Holder

[Interview] [videorecording] /
2004
Visual
Galluccio, Lo.
Interviewed by Doug Holder

[Interview] [videorecording] /
2004
Visual

Slavitt, David R., 1935-
Interview with Doug Holder

[Interview] / [sound recording]
2004
Audio
Solano, Louisa.
Interview with Doug Holder

[Interview] / [sound recording]
2004
Audio
Solano, Louisa.
Interviewed by Doug Holder

[Interview] [videorecording] /
2004
Visual
Fox, Hugh, 1932-
Interviewed by Doug Holder

Boston : a long poem /
2002
Book
Doug Holder

City of poets /
2000
Book

Holder, Doug.

Dreams at the Au bon pain /
2000
Book
Doug Holder

Lifshin, Lyn.
Interview] / [sound recording] 2000
Interviewed by Doug Holder

Poems of Boston and just beyond : from the Back Bay to the back ward /
by Doug Holder

Doug Worth is a Cambridge poet who is member of our "Breakfast With The Bards," group that meets every Saturday in the basement of Finagle-a-Bagel in Harvard Square. (9AM)

CATCH THE LIGHT: Selected Poems (1963-2003)
By Douglas Worth
Higganum Hill Books; 2004
Reviewed by Richard Wilhelm, Art Editor, Ibbetson Street Press. $18

During the course of a reader’s life, she or he may come across a handful of books that have such a transformative effect that one remembers them the rest of one’s life, often giving them multiple readings. Such books are remembered because they have made a reader see the world differently, understand things in a new way. They may be works of fiction, non-fiction, drama, or poetry. Douglas Worth’s CATCH THE LIGHT is a marvelous book and I suspect not a few people will remember where they were living and what they were doing when they first encountered this book. And for those readers who have, thanks to the academics and language poets, written off poetry as incomprehensible jottings of those with too much time on their hands, Mr. Worth’s book will serve as an elixir.
Forget for now his astounding craft and control; these will be apparent. Look instead at what these poems actually bring to the reader. Mr. Worth gives his readers food for the senses and the soul. And like Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman, to name a representative few, Mr. Worth offers “soul food” to his country, not that many of the gang of cretinous thugs currently running the country would have much of an ear for what Mr. Worth or anyone of any real spiritual depth has to say. And Mr. Worth has real spiritual depth. But he has great analytical depth as well. He addresses, in the poems of his 1987 collection, ONCE AROUND BULLOUGH’S POND, the primal trauma that, along with slavery, gnaws at the core of the American psyche: the genocide of the Native people. But he takes on his subject imaginatively, eschewing political rants and instead showing contemporary readers what America has really lost by allowing this tragedy to occur and then repressing the guilt as we continue to do. In the poem dated (titled really; all of the Bullough’s Pond collection have dates as titles, as if they are journal entries) “February 27“, Mr. Worth muses about the pond:
I wonder what its real name is--or the one
it had for thousands of years before we arrived
with our charters and wigs and arrogance and ambition
to build a new town and put Newton on the map--
Great Spirit’s Eye? Gull’s Wing? Kingfisher’s Mirror?
The Bullough’s Pond poems develop a narrative of sorts whereby the early poems describe Mr. Worth’s library investigations of indigenous American culture and his musings about the natural landscape before him. Then the magic begins as Mr. Worth, like a poet-shaman, conjures up from his imagination Native characters who speak to us of their lives and the values they hold. This reviewer is not qualified to speak as to the anthropological veracity of his depictions, but as poetry and as myth these poems give us much to savor and meditate upon. “March 19” is about one’s relationship to the animal that is killed for meat and will be familiar terrain to readers of Joseph Campbell. The poem talks about the solemnity and respect that indigenous people had (have?) for the animals they kill. The last tercet reads:
A curse upon him who slaughters with pride for sport
lugging the head home, leaving the carcass to rot!
Come, we will eat you now, properly, with respect.
“March 7” begins
Sometimes I imagine someone running before me
ahead a few paces, and a few hundred years,
The poem goes on to imagine
--people living more simply in a time
when humans were closer to birds and trees and water
and profits were edible, and bits of seashell
were crafted and strung in patterns as gifts to wear:
wampum, before we dulled that term with trade.
Mr. Worth’s work has many tender moments especially in poems dedicated to lovers, family and friends. In “A Purple Rose”, he tells his lover:
No one before ever lay with me all morning
naked, belly to belly, mouth to mouth
without thinking it must be time
to turn away to more important things--
the news, pilling bills, the phone,
brushing their shrill urgency aside
for some future Now,
Many of the poems in the book find Mr. Worth outdoors, contemplating nature. Like most writers of the Romantic-Transcendental tradition, Mr. Worth finds in nature a keyhole through which we, if we are quiet and focused, can catch a glimpse of divinity. But divinity is not seen as a force that always looks approvingly on all that has been wrought by the species that views itself as the crown of creation. In “Osprey”, a poem from the 2003 book ECHOES IN HEMLOCK GORGE, Mr. Worth describes an encounter with an osprey. The final stanza reads:
I stood for a while
eyeball to eyeball with Nature,
then slowly backed off, turned
and came away
with his message concerning
this fisher king’s toxic wasteland
and his question for all of us:
What’s keeping Galahad?
CATCH THE LIGHT features selections from seven of Mr. Worth’s books, the first OF EARTH, having been published in 1974 (though some of the poems from that collection apparently were written as early as 1963) and the most recent, ECHOES IN HEMLOCK GORGE, came out in 2003. Mr. Worth’s books of poetry have garnered praise from the likes of Denise Levertov, Richard Wilbur, and A.R. Ammons. Poet-activist Daniel Berrigan has said that that “Like good wine, Douglas worth excels with age.” Historian Howard Zinn has called him “a visionary dream-weaver of the future global tribe.”
There are many fine books of poetry out there for poetry lovers to spend their money on. CATCH THE LIGHT is a superb volume that represents 40 years of Douglas worth’s poems. But this book is something more than just a lot of good poems. It is a visionary work, or more accurately, a selection from seven visionary works of art and it is a book that will astound and inspire readers for many years to come. Perhaps other readers will find themselves rushing into another room, looking for a spouse, paramour, or roommate, as I have during the course of reading this book, startling my wife, crying, “Oh my God, oh my God, let me read you this poem!”
Richard N. Wilhelm/ Ibbetson Update/ Somerville

Susie Davidson








“I Refused to Die: Stories of Boston Area Holocaust Survivors and Soldiers who Liberated the Concentration Camps of World War ll. Susie Davidson. ( Ibbetson Street Press 25 School St. Somerville, Mass. 02143 ibbetsonpress@msn.com http://www.ibbetsonpress.com ) $13.

Susie Davidson, correspondent for the “Jewish Advocate,” award-winning poet, and political activist, was awarded a Mass. Cultural Council Grant in 2004 to help her complete the book she was working on: “I Refused to Die: Stories of Boston Area Holocaust Survivors and Soldiers who Liberated the Concentration Camps of World War ll.” ( Ibbetson Press 2005) Davidson writes in her introduction: “ This compendium for the Boston area, which includes contributions from Holocaust community leaders and poets; is not about the profound legacies left by those imprisoned in death camps: the secret theatre troupes, the hunger study,...the musical compositions resurrected in modern concert halls, the clandestine letters, poetry, journals and other writing... It is rather a portrait of the ongoing legacies of the still among us, those without even the graves of loved ones to visit, those who courageously continue to live their best...inside the walls and the chains of the stark, unforgiving past.”
“I Refused to Die...” includes poetry from well-known local poets, essays from community leaders and supporters, articles on Holocaust community topics, Boston-area Holocaust survivors’ stories, testimony from World War ll liberating military units, and many more areas of interest.
Davidson worked for three years on this project. This is not a book for the beach or to kill time between flights. It is testimony to something that is very likely to happen again if we forget. Given the short memory of contemporary culture; a book like this is essential as an elixir to our collective senility.
In a book as comprehensive as this, it is difficult to give a fully-fleshed picture in a short review. But even within these confines the terrible flavor of the camps are resoundingly clear. In this harrowing account by survivor Sylvia Hack; we get a nefarious slice-of-life in the Auschwitz concentration camp:
“I had malaria at the time. Malaria is a terrible disease which leaves you horribly hot and thirsty. I would step on the bodies of the dead at night when I went down below to urinate. I would envy them, because they didn’t have to see the things I was seeing. I prayed to G-D to take me then.... One time I was so overcome with thirst and burning, I was forced to actually drink my own urine. I never knew it was so salty...” (120)
In this poem by asurvivor Sonia Schreiber Weitz, the poet hails a black solider liberator, a welcomed and unexpected messiah who arrives at her camp:
‘” A black messiah came for me...
He stared with eyes that didn’t see,
He never heard a single word
Which hung absurd upon my tongue.
And then he simply froze in place
The shock, the horror on his face,
He didn’t weep, he didn’t cry
But deep within his gentle eyes
...a flood of devastating pain,
His innocence forever slain.
But there’s a special bond we share
Which has grown strong because we dare
To live, to hope, to smile...and yet
We vow not ever to forget.” (217).
In a conversation I had with Davidson she told me that in her role as a journalist she has written about other people’s accomplishments over the years. She said she has reached a point in her life in which she wants to contribute something herself; of herself...her mark.
Davidson has compiled a collection that should be read in the classroom, and in the home. It is an antidote to a malignant amnesia that seems to have been draped over us, as we experience Holocausts on a lesser scale, but Holocausts nonetheless, in many parts of the world.
Doug Holder is a writer living in Somerville, Mass.

Ibbetson poet Jennifer Matthews will be in NYC this weekend performing at "The Living Room." I am told that high level record company execs are checking her out, and are very impressed with her writing. We published Jen's "Fairytales and Misdemeanor" in Sept of 2003.
Jennifer has released a new CD "The Wheel," that is getting great notice. Jen will be featured in "Metronome" next month, and she will be on the front cover...that oughta increase readership!
See her play at Toad this Wednesday, (10PM) and find out what went down in NYC. We wish her the best of luck! http://www.jennifermatthews.com

This article is in the July issue of "Some Other Magazine" http://www.someothermagazine.com ( Vol.2) 2005.

Do You Have To Be Crazy To Write Poetry?by Doug Holder dougholder@someothermagazine.com
For as long as I can remember, there has always been the romantic notion of the mad, or divinely inspired, poet floating around in the ether. While working at McLean Hospital, a psychiatric facility, for the past 23 years, I have heard and read about the legendary poets who paced the wards. Poets of the stature of Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, and Anne Sexton suffered from severe mental illness, and were hospitalized at different points in their mercurial careers. Plath and Sexton met their end through suicide, and Lowell died in the back seat of a cab he was taking to visit his ex-wife in New York City. Some never recover from their illness.
Since I have often worked with manic and clinically depressed patients over the years, and therefore have an intimate knowledge of the affliction, I can only write that the toil and the turmoil of depression is not worth the creative insight one might lay within. In a Boston Globe review of The Letters of Robert Lowell, edited by Saskia Hamilton, I read part of a letter that Lowell wrote to the poet Robert Fitzgerald about his experience with mental illness: “...terrific lifts, insights, pourings in of new energy, but no work on my part, only more and more self-indulgence, lack of objectivity; and so, into literal madness i.e. I had to be locked up.” As with any experience in our lives, we can bring it back into our own writing. But my question is, is it worth it?
In the midst of mental illness, or a severe depression, the ability to concentrate, think straight, or even take care of one’s most basic needs is severely impaired. Peter D. Kramer, the author of Against Depression and a clinical professor of psychiatry at Brown University, writes that depression takes an actual, tangible toll on the brain. Indeed, MRI studies at McLean have shown that the actual structure of the brain can be altered due to past abuse and mental illness. It has been speculated that depression can cause the hippocampus (part of the brain) to shrink, and may have a big role in the course of heart and other related diseases, as well as cancer.
Part of my job over the years at the hospital was to run poetry groups on some of the locked wards. For the most part, the poetry that was shared from psychotic and clinically depressed patients in the midst of their illness was impoverished. Often when they were on the mend and or recovered, they were writing much better and even inspired poetry.
They wrote equally well about their experience with their illness, as well as nature and other less oppressive aspects of their lives. The experience of mental illness can be very good fodder for poetry, but I think if you asked these patient/writers if they would like to go the depths of depression to mine material for their creative work, the answer would be a resounding no.
Thomas J. Cottle, a Boston-area psychologist, writes in a review of Kramer’s book that “first, there is no evidence to suggest that depression is the cause of the enriched imagination, the basis, in other words, of the creative fount. People paint and write poetry in spite of their illness.”
To me, that is the most inspiring aspect of writing and mental illness. I have seen folks ravaged by the disease, barely able to put a spoon to their mouths, pick up a pen, and write. When they do write, the illness loses, and humanity wins.
Douglas Holder is a writer in Somerville. For more about him and his work, please visit his homepage, www.authorsden.com/douglasholder.

I got word from Harris Gardner that the Boston National Poetry Festival is on , yet again, at the main branch of the Boston Public Library the weekend of April 8, 2006.
We were worried that it wouldn't be approved for its sixth year, but it came through. Look for further announcements!

Presa :s: Press of Rockford Michigan is releasing an anthology in the coming months of avant-garde poetry. ( "Inside the Outside") Hugh Fox was instrumental in advising Eric Greinke, the publisher, about poets to include in this anthology. I am proud to say I am included along with some very big names from the small press.

I just got a letter from my friend and poet Ed Galing. Ed is 88 years old. He has published in hundreds of magazines over the years, including Ibbetson Street. I published a collection of his poetry "Prayers on a Tenement Rooftop," some years ago. It dealt with his childhood in the Lower East Side of New York City in the 1920's. I call Ed every few weeks. He is an inspiration. In spite of his advanced years; an infirm wife, and all the aches and pains of age; he still churns the stuff out and more often than not finds a home for his poems. I am of the belief that his work keeps him alive...literally. His poetry deals with his experiences in World War ll, his years working in the Burlesque business, his family, growing up Jewish, the characters he meets at Jack 's Deli in Philadelphia...well, you name it. Ed is the poet-laureate of Hatboro, PA, he plays a mean harmonica, and he never tires of writing. He has the voice of a carnival barker, and he often alternates between being sweetly avancular and severely pissed off.I was suppose to film Ed this summer, but as fate would have it, my plans fell through. I hope to still do it, and if anyone out there is interested, I'll give you his contact info. Ed doesn't write for money, and at this point in the game he realizes he won't be a poet laureate. He writes because he has to. Ed is a true poet, and will be writing up till his last breath. There ain't too many better ways to go! Ed wrote me a letter recently. I'd like to share some of his thoughts.
"My wife turns 88, how time is going by Doug. Nobody wants to think of death being around the corner...but sooner or later...we will all have to face it bravely...not yet...not yet."" I am not so interested in posterity...nobody really remembers unless you are really famous...and so what?""There is no rhyme or reason to what I write. I have a habit of writing rapidly...and then putting it away overnight...if it still reads ok; I take a chance and send it out..."" I began to write around high school. I lived in poverty back then. I thought writing was a way out, and I found out it's not an easy way to get rich.."" A genius I am not. No James Joyce, Richard Wright, or any of the Jewish writers I love. But I try to have my own style, and write the way my personality declares I must write."Ed invited me down to his house stating: "I would sure like to meet you in person. If you do don't expect much. I am now just an old man, with a small Cape Cod house. But we are friendly and loving, and I play harmonica. That might entice you to come. Take care Doug. Write me a letter sometime. It lasts longer."--Posted by Doug to Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene at 7/04/2005 02:01:00

Well... the Ibbetson Street Press is working on three books presently. Two are from Cambridge poets Ann Carhart, and Philip Burnham, Jr. The other is from Hugh Fox...that we hope to have out this summer.

The new issue of Poesy is out, with an interview with Lyn Lifshin by Pablo Teasdale. Check it out on http://www.poesy.org

Steve Glines, the head of The Wilderness House Literary Retreat tells me the poet Franz Wright will be our guest in Aug 2005...stay tuned! http://www.wildernesshouse.org

I pretty much have next season's Newton Free Library Poetry Series booked. We are scheduled to have such poets as Frannie Lindsay, Laurie Rosenblatt, Tam Lin Neville, CD Collins, Dick Lourie and more... Starts on the second Tues. in Sept...

Susie Davidson will be reading at the Toast Lounge from her book "I Refused to Die"That's July 10 2005 3PM 70 Union Square, Somerville.

Neil W. McCabe resigned as editor of The Somerville news http://www.thesomervillenews.com We wish him well. We also welcome George Hassett as the new editor.

I am still awaiting word from Harris Gardner about the fate of the "Boston National Poetry Festival." http://tapestryofvoices.com We hope it can be salvaged for next April (2006)

Doug Holder 

The new issue of Ibbetson Street has come out (17) with fine cover art by Richard Wilhelm and Harold Cunniff, and poetry from Robert K. Johnson, Michael Estabrook, Mike James, Freddie Frankel, Lainie Senechal, Ed Galing, Mid Walsh, James Kernochan, Stephen Morse, Linda Haviland Conte and many others.

Louisa Solano, owner of the "Grolier Poetry Book Shop," will be the recipient of the third annual "Ibbetson Street Press Life Time Achievement Award," at "The Somerville News Writers Festival," Nov. 13. Previous recipients were Jack Powers and Robert K. Johnson.

Harris Gardner's brainchild the "Boston National Poetry Marathon Festival" is in danger of being cut because of fiscal difficulties at the library. This five year old festival has been a great success, and a real important part of our community. Send emails in support of the festival to Harris, so he can alert the library to what a mistake it would be to axe this unique event. Send to: tapestryofvoices@yahoo.com

Susie Davidson's Holocaust book "I Refused to Die..." that includes poetry, essays, oral testimony, etc...had its first reading in Brookline and it was standing room only. We have other events planned such as radio appearences, readings at McIntyre and Moore Books, Newton Free Library, Newton Community Education, The Somerville News at Toast Poetry Series, and more to be announced. You can purchase a book through the Ibbetson Street Press 25 School St. Somerville, Ma. 02143 $11 with postage.

Our next guest at the "Wilderness House Literary Retreat" will be the former literary secretary to Anne Sexton Suzzane Berger.

Susie Davidson, author of "I Refused to Die...." (Ibbetson 2005) will be releasing her book on Boston-area Holocaust survivors May 6. There will be a reading at 100Centre Street Brookline, Mass at 6PM Oct. 5

Well -there was a good showing for the "Celebration of the Small Press " reading at Adams House-Harvard. Both the Ibbetson Street press and Cafe Review folks read.

Ibbetson 17 will be going to the printer in the next few weeks. June 26 at McIntyre and Moore Books in Somerville 3PM will be the releasing reading.

There are some exciting developments for the next "The Somerville News Writers Festival" in November--stay tuned.

I will be interviewing the new head of the "Iowa Writers Workshop," Lan Samantha Chang, for The Somerville News.

Ibbetson Poet, Jennifer Matthews has released a new CD "The Wheel" Not only is she a great poet, but she is a great singer/songwriter. To get a copy go to: http://www.jennifermatthews.com

Our April 9th Wilderness House Literary Retreat http://www.wildernesshouse.org was a success. Our guest was Lois Ames, a confidant to Anne Sexton.

Poetry submissions for Ibbetson Street 17 are closed...the issue should be out in June 2005.

Sadly, Robert Creeley died shortly after his appearence at Wilderness House Literary Retreat in Dec. 2004. We were lucky to meet the man. A tape of the event is available for viewing (by appointment) at the Lamont Library Poetry Room-Harvard University.

I just found out that Cait Collins, the founder of http://www.the-hold.com passed-away...my condolences...

Marc Widershien, author of the lyrical memoir of Boston "The Life of All Worlds," ( Ibbetson 2001) http://marccreate.com has now released a CD version of the book. He appeared on the "Jordan Rich" show on WBZ AM recently.

Linda Haviland Conte and Mary Buchinger Bodwell recieved a Somerville Arts Council grant for a poetry workshop. It will start in April at the main branch of the Somerville, Mass. library.

Programs were just released for the "Boston National Poetry Month Festival" http://www.tapestryofvoices.com slated for April2 and 3 at the Copley Branch of the Boston Public Library.

My friends Timothy Gager and Maria McCarthy, founders of the Heat City Review tell me the print version will be out this month. http://heatcityreview.com

"The Somerville News" has gone weekly and so has the "Lyrical Somerville" So check out poetry every week. http://thesomervillenews.com

Doug Holder 

I just interviewed "Mothra" and Matt, two principals involved in creating the new 'zine library in Cambridge, Mass. They hope to have it opened in April 2005, at 54 Mt. Auburn St. in Harvard Square.

Yellow Pepper Press ( Pittsburg, PA.) has agreed to publish my book "Wrestling With My Father" It should be released in the Fall of 2005.

Lois Ames, confidant of Anne Sexton, will be a guest at the Wilderness House Literary Retreat April 9. http://wildernesshouse.org

Next month in Poesy Magazine, I will have an article about Robert Creeley's visit to the Wilderness House...

Lo Galluccio, and "The Alewife," a North Cambridge newspaper founded by Neil W. McCabe, will be having a poetry venue starting in March at "Spirits" outside of Porter Square, Cambridge, on Mass. Ave.

Word has it that The Somerville News http://thesomervillenews.com will go weekly in March. That means I will need more poetry for the "Lyrical" Somerville.

Ibbetson poets Linda Haviland Conte, Deborah M. Priestly and Doug Holder will be reading April 21 as part of the "Grolier Poetry Reading Series," Small Press Celebration with Maine's "Cafe Review." That will be At Adams House 8PM.

Harris Gardner is working feverishly to get the "Boston National Poetry Festival Marathon" up and running April 2-3 at the Boston Public Library. For more info go to: http://www.tapestryofvoices.com