The Sunday Poet: Zvi Sesling

Poet Zvi Sesling

Zvi A. Sesling, Poet Laureate of Brookline, MA is a prize winning poet. He edits Muddy River Poetry Review, publishes Muddy River Books and reviews for Boston Small Press and Poetry Scene. He is author of Fire Tongue (Cervena Barva Press, 2016) and King of the Jungle (Ibbetson Street Press, 2010), and two chapbooks Love Poems From Hell (Flutter Press, 2017) and Across Stones of Bad Dreams (Cervena Barva Press, 2011). He lives in Brookline with his wife Susan J. Dechter.






Manipulation

Raindrops on the window

tears from her eyes

serious conversation

they hold hands

smile

then serious again

then she cries

raindrops plink on

the window

she wipes her tears

whatever he is saying

her emotions respond

smile

tears

smile

tears

which of them is

being manipulated

Doug Holder Interviews Poet Ben Berman

Boston Area Small Press Poetry Scene: DeWitt Henry--Woven Tale Press

 

 

 

 Back in Feb. of 2017--DeWitt Henry wrote this nice review of the Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene http://dougholder.blogspot.com   in his column in the Woven Tale Press online magazine. Henry is the founder of Ploughsares Magazine, and taught at Emerson College in Boston for many years.  Here is a link to the magazine: http://www.thewoventalepress.net/2017/02/01/featured-bookmarks-literary-3/

 

 

Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene

Founded in 2003 by poet, teacher, editor, journalist, reviewer, and overall impresario Doug Holder, this serves as a model “alternative literary” site dedicated to building, reporting on, and promoting a local literary scene. In this case, while centered in Somerville, MA, the scene is that of greater Boston, which Holder boosts as the Paris of New England.  His first affinity is for beat poets, but he celebrates a generous range of local poets and fiction writers, many of them nationally known.
His weekly interviews are carried on Somerville Cable (“Poet to Poet/Writer to Writer”), transcribed and published in the Somerville Times, and featured and archived on the blog. He and his circle of regular contributors, known as “The Bagel Bards,” also write engaged and perceptive reviews of new books by locals (and each other). Recent high points include interviews with X.J. Kennedy, WTP Contributing Editor Joyce Peseroff, Margot Livesey, and the former Poet Laureate of Boston, Sam Cornish, whose book Holder had published with his indie press, Ibbetson Street. 

The Brighter House By Kim Garcia

The Brighter House

By Kim Garcia

White Pine Press Poetry Prize Volume 21

Review by Kate Hanson Foster

William Wordsworth wrote in his poem, “Ode: Intimations of Immortality and Recollections of Early Childhood” that we are but “trailing clouds of glory…” and boldly declared, “Heaven lies about us in our infancy!” Wordsworth believed that children are wise and celestial, and as we grow we veer further and further from our divine selves. In her collection, The Brighter House, Kim Garcia suggests the opposite—that we are not de-spiritualized with age, and instead describes a personal transition from uneasy earthly child to heavenly poet. “Who can say what is a blessing?” says the speaker in the poem, “In the beginning was all the after.” “I am blessed with curses.” Childhood, for all its pains and progressions, is a universal human phase we all must go through, and for some, an innocent child can be exposed to not so innocent circumstances. For some, as the poet suggests, the “beginning” starts in the “after.”

The Brighter House contains poems that ruminate over childhood wounds—most of which are centered on an abusive father and the psychological imprint left on his daughters. There are several “Tales of the Sisters” poems strewn throughout the collection—various scenes of three young girls: the speaker, one “light sister” and one “dark sister,” implying that the abuse each withstood had its own individual impacts.

The poems are rich in metaphor, creating a more sensory experience—a place where lyrics can do what prose cannot. There is no clear narrative present, and the reader can only guess the concrete details in the stories. In “Transfusion, 2p.m.” the speaker describes her ailing father by saying, “I cannot find in myself a single hard word against the sturdy weave of sentiment or any human grasping.” Perhaps this desire for the right word or words could explain the many reoccurring images in the collection. There are “wriggling legs” of a child and “wriggling bodies” of frogs—two separate scenes in two separate poems, both describing a squirming out of something difficult. Other images frequent the book as well (i.e. water, darkness, dust, clouds) and yet there isn’t a sense of redundancy in these familiar words, instead a sort of strategy of meditation—returning and evaluating the same memories and ideas in order to travel from dark to light. But what if the mind is a “mind full of tar…almost solid or suggests a solid, as mercury suggests steel, and these clouds stones.” (“It’s Simpler) The poet cannot dwell in this space forever—and admits, “If I were dying/tomorrow I would be bitter I would/ buy a brighter house. I would leave bad/memories. I would be the brighter house.” (“Aubade”) There is acceptance of the events that transpired—a new awareness and ultimately even forgiveness and peace. The speaker proclaims, “I am saying yes. Not to death, which isn’t my business, but to heaven,” implying that heaven is something that doesn’t have to come after death. There can be a blessed afterlife following childhood, a spiritual transcendence when you climb the dark stairs to something lighter—A Wordsworthian might even agree with that.

About the Author

Kim Garcia: Kim Garcia is the author of DRONE, winner of the 2015 Backwaters Prize, Tales of the Sisters, winner of the 2015 Sow’s Ear Chapbook Contest, and Madonna Magdalene, released by Turning Point Books in 2006. Garcia teaches creative writing at Boston College.

Evie Salon Studio: A Place Where Hair and Art Commingle.

Yvonne Bonaccorso

Evie Salon and Studio: A Place Where Hair and Art Commingle.

By Doug Holder

I am not a patron of hair salons. When I go to have my sparse bit of hair and my beard trimmed I go to an old school barber in Harvard Square. But on this occasion, I made the trip to the Evie Salon and Studio in Davis Square, Somerville. The owner, Yvonne Bonaccorso met me at the salon.  Bonaccorso impressed me as warm and friendly, and of course she was well-coiffed. She told me that the stylish black dress she was wearing was designed at a local shop “whats—nu,” right down the block from her.

Bonaccorso has long been in the hair business. She owned a shop in the 80s in Harvard Square. She has been at her location in Davis Square for the past three years. She told me that, “ Davis Square has been great. We have a lot of foot traffic. We have a lot of students, and young professionals who come to the shop. A lot of Harvard and MIT folks get there hair done here. I definitely see a future for the salon.”

Although Bonaccorso lives in Melrose—she did live on Elmwood Ave. in Somerville for a number of years. She said at times—she misses living in the Square—with all the great activity it seems to be the center of.

Now—you might ask—what is the “studio” part of this salon about? Bonaccorso told me she designed the store like an artists' studio. She has stark white walls that display the works of artists who show their work here. And there is a sort of industrial chic ambiance to the salon as well.

Bonaccorso is a staunch believer that hair dressing is an art. She told me, “ Most people are misinformed about what a hair stylist really does. I capture tones from around the world. Everyone of my stylists try to create a masterpiece. Stylists should be good actors but most importantly humane. They should have an innate way with people. We have to perfect a style that goes with a client's skin color, the shape of their head, and the texture of their hair. We want to achieve a color for a client. We actually paint their hair. She continued, “ I am constantly looking towards nature to inspire my creations.”

The Evie Salon and Studio is very community-minded. And right now they host a number of artists and their work. Bonnaccurso told me that currently they have a series of works by the artist Kim Dyres-Villard on display. It is tilted the “Reforestation Series.” The viewer will see the forest through printmaking, graphite and water color. Bonaccorso also plans to have wine-tastings, and other events to draw people into the store.

As a poet I was interested to hear that Bonaccorso in her long career-- has done the hair of Marie Howe (She describes Howe as a real feminist with a great mane of red hair), Steven Cramer ( the former head of the MFA program at Lesley University), the founder of Agni magazine-- Askold Melnycuz, as well as the writer Gail Caldwell. Bonaccorso told me that poets that inspire her are  Robet Bly,  Reiner Maria Rilka, and Yeats. She said,"The Two Trees by Yeats is my constant companion." I might have asked for a haircut of my own—but my head is devoid of the much desired flora. So I walked out of the shop—further enlightened—here in the “ Paris of New England.”

The Out of the Blue Art Gallery: Friend of Somerville Artists and Poets Needs Your Help!

 


The mission of Out of the Blue Gallery is to organize, support, and present to the public at large the creative efforts of local artists, musicians, and more from our community. The gallery encourages artists of all backgrounds to share with us and celebrate the uniqueness they bring from different cultures, genders, ages and academic backgrounds. Artists of all abilities are given an opportunity to share in the expression of the arts and all of its varieties and forms; painting, music, dance, poetry, short story, acting or singing, and for these same artists to intermingle with those of different disciplines to better be able to grow and learn from each other. The Gallery’s purpose is to bring people together in an inspiring, supportive, and empowering environment.

For many years I have been a patron of the Out of the Blue Gallery now located in Central Square, Cambridge. Tom Tipton, Deb Priestly, and many others have been a great friend of poets, writers, painters, etc... I have had many poetry readings there, and many Somerville poets have had their first reading experience at the Gallery. Now this place is in danger of closing--please go to their site and make a donation--there are fewer and fewer places like this that speak to the community! https://outoftheblueartgallery.com/fundraiser

The Somerville Bagel Bards will have a fundraising reading  June 25  at 12 Noon--at the gallery--please come and support this vital venue!


541 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge MA, 02139
Email  for booking, submitting, or any other questions at
ootbgallery@gmail.com
Call the Gallery at 617-233-0269

FINAL HASTINGS ROOM READING this Wednesday May 31st at 7:30pm

FINAL HASTINGS ROOM READING this Wednesday May 31st at 7:30pm

First Church Congregationalist 11 Garden Street, a few blocks north of Harvard Square

The final reading of the Hastings Room Poetry Reading Series in the Hastings Room proper,

a beautiful early 20-th century salon-style room that has served many years as a meeting and reading space in one of Harvard Square’s oldest churches, the First Church Congregationalist on Garden Street, will be held this Wednesday, May 31st at 7:30pm.

Readers will include Harvard Divinity Students JB Fields, Walter Smelt III, and series

co-founder Michael Todd Steffen author of the poetry collection Partner, Orchard, Day Moon.

The event will be hosted by series founder Steven Brown.

The interruption of the use of the Hastings Room is due to planned renovations at First Church.

THIS IS NOT TO BE THE END OF THE HASTINGS ROOM READING SERIES, however. The series will continue to be held in other ambient spaces of First Church, such as the McKenzie Library, the Choir Room and Sage Hall (where we have already held some of the readings). Our 4th annual Seamus Heaney Memorial Reading is scheduled for Wednesday August 30th at 7pm, with readers Denis Daly, Valery Duff and Aidan Rooney.

The series began in April of 2015 and has run continuously with quarterly readings, including improvised readings. We mark the occasion by extending our thanks to the willing participation of some of the area’s best poets, with visitors to Cambridge in the mix, including

Daniel Tobin  David Ferry   late Pulitzer Prize poet Franz Wright   Frank Bidart  

Michael Dickman     Deborah Garrison     Dan Wuenschel    Alex Green

Frannie Lindsay       Elizabeth Oehlkers Wright             Fred Marchant           David Blair

Lloyd Schwartz      Joan Houlihan        Martha Collins           Doug Holder

Simeon Berry       Natasha Sajé              George Kalogeris       Meg Tyler     Marc Vincenz

Mark Pawlak     Louise C. Callaghan      Kevin Cutrer               Bert Stern

Ernest Hilbert          Gloria Mindock          Lo Gallucio      Toni Bee        

Jean Denis Joachim    Peter Payack     Denise Bergman         Jennifer Formicelli

Irene Koronas          Jaime Bonney    Brother Nicholas Bartoli        Mary Buchinger       

and members of the Woodberry Translation Group Monika Totten, Adnan Adam Onart, Gwendolyn Jensen and Kathryn Hellerstein.

While we are glad to be carrying our series onward, it will be a moment for pause to say goodbye to this lovely space as we know it. Come and join us.

The Sunday Poet: Sebastian Lockwood

 

Sebastian Lockwood

 

Sebastian Lockwood is a Storyteller who specializes in the epics and has narrated a series of audio books available at Audible.com and Amazon.com.  Lockwood lives with his wife, singer and producer, Nanette Perrotte, under Crotched Mountain, NH.

 

Climb that Cliff

Boys on the beach in grinding shingle

Climbing the rotten clay cliff

Incoming pigeon bombs

A thousand small deaths later

Nose and lip over the top

To find four foul golfers at golf.

Now from the height of this hill

Sixty some winters later

I look back down at the cross-roads

The dead-ends and paths not taken

But granted, see both blessings and toil

Now the heft and thwack of memory

Sucks like quicksand and quagmire

So climb that cliff, run the manifold paths

That all lead to this high hill.

Endicott College Young Writers Workshop June 24-7

Click on to enlarge

Endicott College to Host Young Writers Workshop for Local High School Students

 The Endicott Young Writer's Workshop, which will be held on June 24-25, 2017.   This camp-like experience provides students who will be in grades 9-12 in the fall, and who have an interest in creative writing, an opportunity to meet other student writers and to work closely with three of Endicott's most accomplished professors and writers: Charlotte Gordon, Dan Sklar, and Elizabeth Winthrop. 

Here is a link to a press release about the Workshop from the College's website: http://www.endicott.edu/News/2017/4-28WritersWorkshop.aspx

To register

https://endicottyoungwritersworkshop.eventbrite.com


Contact  mherlihy@endicott.edu  

High school students with an interest in creative writing are invited to attend a Young Writers erlihy@endicott.edu; Tel-978-232-2178).

Interview with Somerville writer Joelle Renstrom: “Closing the Book” on her late father

( Left--Doug Holder/Right--Joelle Renstom)

 

Interview with Somerville writer Joelle Renstrom: “Closing the Book” on her late father

Interview with Doug Holder

Even though I lost my own father over 14 years ago, I still sense his presence—and I am still engaged in an ongoing conversation with him. So I was particularly interested to meet and interview Joelle Renstrom, a Somerville writer and professor, who wrote a book about her physical journey and her mental one—with the presence of her deceased father always in the background. I loved the way Renstrom mingled literature, loss, grief and discovery in this fine memoir. 

 Joelle Renstrom is a writer living in Somerville, MA. Her collection of essays, Closing the Book: Travels in Life, Loss, and Literature, was published by Pelekinesis in August, 2015. Joelle's blog Could This Happen? explores the relationship between science and science fiction, and won a 2012 Somerville Arts Council fellowship and a 2013 Writers' Room of Boston Nonfiction fellowship. She's the robot columnist for The Daily Beast, a space news reporter for now.space, and a contributing writer for Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel. Her work has appeared in Slate, Aeon, The Guardian, Cognoscenti, and others. Joelle teaches writing and research with a focus on robots/AI, technology, space exploration, and science fiction at Boston University. Follow her on Twitter @couldthishappen.

DH: So how is it being a writer living in Somerville?

JR: Really awesome. It is quite an inspiring place to be. Especially for someone like me that is very interested in science and technology. There is this confluence of art and science. People are doing all kinds of artistic things with their science. I mean you can take a class to make a robot right down the block. When you have very artistic people who know how to make stuff happen—well, it is a place of endless inspiration.

DH: I have run poetry groups for psychiatric patients at McLean Hospital for many years. Poetry—the writing of it—can be therapeutic. Did you write this memoir about your journey in search of your deceased father as a form of therapy?

JR: I never intended to write the book. And when I was writing it I didn't really know why. But I was so consumed with grief and I didn't know what to do with it. It was a story I had to tell, and certainly the process was therapeutic. I read a quote once, “ A poet is someone for who no event is finished until he or she has written about it.” I think this is true of all writers. I don't think I would have processed what had happened to my dad if I hadn't written about it.

DH: You used quotes from a variety of literary figures, including: Walt Whitman, Don DeLillo, Ray Bradbury, etc...

JR: Yes. They all wrote works that inspired me. Those writers spoke to me then ( and now)--they spoke to my experience. They spoke about what I was going through.

DH: Why did you not include women writers in this group?

JR: You know I really despise classes that deal with only female writers. The choice was really clear for me because this was a book about my dad. All these male writers—in some way—played a paternal role. There are many women writers that write about grief and loss. One I admire is Joan Didion. But I just felt that I had a different attachment to the writers I chose.

DH: You quoted Walt Whitman. Whitman—like you—wandered all about, took it all in, and was not judgmental. Do you think you were Whitman-like.

JR: I think that is something that I would aspire to. I don't think I actually got there. I tried to channel him, though.

DH: In your memoir your father presence is felt through nature.

JR: After his death I sensed my late father's presence all the time—not only in nature. I taught at Western Michigan University for awhile, and the class was right down the hall from my dad's old office. I thought I could sense him there.. When I went to Scandinavia—I felt him around all the time. I can't explain it, but it was a great comfort.

DH: You basically write in the science fiction genre. Was this a stretch for you?

JR: This was my first foray into creative-non-fiction. It felt natural though. Since then I have gone back to science fiction.

DH: Does teaching distract you from your writing?

JR: I teach at Boston University. I do get inspired from students. And really—you don't ever know a book as well as when you are teaching it.

Somerville Artist Lois Blood Bennett Presides Over A Marriage of Computers and Art

Somerville Artist Lois Blood Bennett Presides Over A Marriage of Computers And Art

by Doug Holder

Digital artist Lois Blood Bennett met with me on a cool spring morning at my usual seat by the fireplace in the back of the Bloc 11 Cafe. We were to talk about her brand of art that involves-- her--(the human artist) and a computer, collaborating to make a piece of art.

Bennett is somewhere in middle-age, with long gray-speckled hair, that belies her almost girlish enthusiasm for the genre of art that she practices. She and her husband live in the Brickbottom, an enclave for artists and other creatives, that is located in the outskirts of Union Square. She told me that she and her husband love the community of people that live there. She commented, “ The vibe that this place creates is wonderful. It is also well-managed, and the Brickbottom frequently hosts great events.”

As for our own “ Paris of New England,” Bennett is equally enthused. She said, “I love the Somerville Arts Council. They help make Somerville an exciting place to work as an artist. They have a great list serve that I often use to hook up with something of interest—like a bookbinding course, or—well--this very interview we are having now.”

As Somerville undergoes a big transition and gentrification creeps into our city—Bennett does have her concerns. She told me, “In the case of the Brickbottom --a new subway station will be built close to it. This will cause a lot of traffic and noise. There also seems to be a plan to change the area from light industry to more housing. I think artists and light industry are better co-inhabitants. Housing , I think, will bring on a totally different vibe.” Bennett went on to say that the Brickbottom community is politically active—and will be strong advocates for their neck of the woods.

Now—getting to her art-- Bennett herself told me that it is not easily explained. But—here is the Monarch Notes version. Bennett works in something called “Fractal Flame Design.” Fractal Flames are mathematical constructs that are capable of creating great complexity from rather simple equations.

Bennett uses software and her own artistic sensibility to create patterns from this that are often but not always, evocative of nature. The images I have looked at ( and it is subjective, of course) suggest clusters of cells, swirling feathers in a surreal mix, ancient, bony fish, a shrouded, spectral woman etc... Bennett told me, “I use my color sense, random chance, and my knowledge of theory to create fascinating patterns.”

Bennett also told me she was involved in a piano project, titled: “ Play Me I'm Yours.” It was hosted by the Boston Celebrity Series. Pianos were donated that could be played or could be made playable. One of Bennett's designs was transferred to the surface of a pure white piano—for a stunning presentation. Her piece was displayed at the Prudential Towers in Boston--the other pianos were spread around Boston sites

Bennett also told me that her patterns have been transferred to fabric—scarves, dresses, etc...She added that one of her images is now displayed at the Millbrook Lofts in the Twin City Plaza.

Bennett left our table to rush to her job as a Computer Systems Analyst . Bennett is just one of the faces in the crowd that make our city unique.

For more info go to:

http://loisbennett.com

List of Contributors for Ibbetson Street 41 due out in June 2017

Michael Ansara

Linda Bamber

Molly Mattfield Bennett

Denise Bergman

Michael Brosnan

Cheryl Buchanan

Mary Buchinger

Philip E. Burnham, Jr.

Jo Carney c/o Galvin

Michael Casey 

Ruth C. Chad

Laura Cherry—

 Llyn Clague

Robert J. Clawson

Louisa Clerici

Charles Coe

Dennis Daly

Holly Day

Beatriz Alba Del Rio

Richard Dey

Kirk Etherton—

Roberta Carr Flynn

Lillian Freedman

Brendan Galvin

Harris Gardner

 Mary Hampton

Maximilian Heinegg

Lucy Holstedt—

Paul Hostovsky

Robert K. Johnson

Judy Katz-Levine

Lawrence Kessenich

Ted Kooser

Tom Laughlin

Lyn Lifshin

Ellaraine Lockie

Jim Maguire—


Jacquelyn Malone

Michael Gillan Maxwell

Eileen McClusky—

Triona McMorrow

Ed Meek

Alfred Nicol

Tomas O'Leary

Mark Pawlak

Joyce Peseroff—

Marge Piercy Box

Susan Edwards Richmond

Gayle Roby


Bridget Seley-Galway

Lainie Senechal

Zvi A. Sesling

Priscilla Turner Spada

Kathleen Spivack

Tim Suermondt 

Bert Stern—

T. Michael Sullivan—

Sandra Thaxter

Keith Tornheim

Paulette Demers Turco

Joyce Wilson 

Pui Ying Wong

Doug Holder Interviews Poet Daniel Tobin

The Sunday Poet: Pui Ying Wong

Pui Ying Wong was born in Hong Kong. She is the author of a full length book of poetry Yellow Plum Season (New York Quarterly Books, 2010), two chapbooks: Mementos (Finishing Line Press, 2007), Sonnet for a New Country (Pudding House Press, 2008) and her poems have appeared in Angle Poetry (U.K.), The Brooklyner, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal (Hong Kong), Connotation Press: An Online Artifact, Crannog (Ireland), Desde Hong Kong: poets in conversation with Octavio Paz, Chameleon Press (Hong Kong), Pirene’s Fountain, Prairie Schooner, The Southampton Review and 2Bridges Review among others. She lives in Cambridge, MA with her husband.  She recently won the PUSHCART PRIZE for her poetry and is a member of the Somerville Bagel Bards

                       

AN EMIGRANT’S WINTER

That winter, water froze in the pipes

and the faucet wheezed like asthma.

Icicles teethed along the power line,

I opened my mouth and my speech stuttered.

The entire city lived in a snow globe,

even big men trod timidly in the wind, hiding their faces

like shamed felons caught by the TV camera.

The market sold out everything,

a young boy snatched the last pack of meat.

Sleet fell all night, tapping

on the windows the way the dead might.

In my dream I went back to the house

that had forgotten about me,

not one there asked how I’d been. 

But I sat with them just the same,

watching TV like I had never left.

Who will remember what, who can say?

Mornings punctured by sounds of dragging snowplows,

I peeped at the sun, the feeble white disc,

failed again to burn off the clouds.

It was so cold I could think of fire

and only fire.

First published in deComp 

Pui Ying Wong