Author: Frances Donovan

I like poetry, long walks on the beach, and democracy. Tending the Garden of Words (www.gardenofwords.com) since 1998.
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Poetry Readings and Events in Boston, November and December 2013

I get periodic emails from a gentleman at MIT about poetry readings and events in the greater Boston area. It’s a good reminder of why I chose to move here 13 years ago, and why I stay. The list can be rather overwhelming, so I’ve highlighted two readings in November featuring poets I know and highly recommend:

  • Grey Held and other poets from the Workshop for Publishing Poets next Monday, November 4 at Newtonville Books;
  • Charles Coe and Alexis Ivy at the Newton Free Library on Tuesday, November 12

The Brookline Public Library reading series also has consistently high-quality readers both as headliners and in the open mic. The organizers can be a bit snooty as a result, but if you gird your loins appropriately it’s worth attending. You may even see me there.

If you are interested in signing up for the email list, please comment with your email address and I will send you information on how to subscribe.

And on an unrelated note, Happy Halloween, Blessed Samhain, and Feliz Dias de los Muertos.

Boston Poetry Listings follow:

Friday, November 1, 8 pm
Christopher Boucher, Carrie Causie, and Randy Wittwer
Dire Literary Series
Out of the Blue Art Gallery
106 Prospect St.
Cambridge

Monday, November 4, 6 pm
Philip Levine
Bill Bordy Theater
216 Tremont St.
Boston

Monday, November 4, 7 pm
Grey Held, Diana Cole, and Ellie Mamber
Newtonville Books
10 Langley Road
Newton
[This is the regular reading series for PoemWorks: The Workshop for Publishing Poets]

Monday, November 4, 7 pm
Scott Ruescher, Betty Buchsbaum, and Peter Filkins
and other winners
NEPC Prize Winners
Harvard-Yenching Library, Common Room 136
2 Divinity Ave.
Cambridge (off Kirkland, near Memorial Hall)

Monday, November 4, 8 pm
Mark Halliday and Anna Ross
Blacksmith House Poetry Series
56 Brattle Street
Cambridge
$3

Tuesday, November 5, 6:30 pm
David Ferry
The Louisa Solano Poetry Series
Cambridge Public Library
449 Broadway, Cambridge

Tuesday, November 5, 7 pm
David Rivard, Edith Pearlman, Ewa Hryniewicz-Yarbrough, and J. D. Daniels
AGNI 78 launch
Boston Playwrights’ Theatre
949 Commonwealth Ave
Boston (Green Line B, Pleasant St.)

Tuesday, November 5, 5:30 pm
Martha Collins
Grolier Poetry Fall Reading Series
Grolier Poetry Book Shop
6 Plympton St.
Cambridge

Wednesday, November 6, 8 pm
Julie Joosten, Erin Morrill, Laura Mullen
Small Animal Project
Outpost 186
186 1/2 Hampshire St
Cambridge

Tuesday, November 5, 6 pm [Note: moved from Thurs, 11/7]
Transversal Kickoff Reading
Washington Curcurto, Tamara Kamenszain and Malu Urriola
in the company of their translators Forrest Gander, Laura Healy and Anna Deeny
David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies Auditorium
1730 Cambridge Street
Cambridge

Tuesday, November 5, 5:30 pm
Martha Collins
Grolier Poetry Book Shop
6 Plympton Street
Cambridge

Wednesday, November 6, 5 pm – 6: 30 pm
Rae Armantrout
Morris Gray Lecture
The Thompson Room
Barker Center
Quincy Street
Cambridge

Wednesday, November 6, 6 pm  (please note updated location)
Transversal Seminar: On Spanish Poetry and Translation
Brandel France de Bravo and Roger Santivañez
David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies Auditorium
Woodberry Poetry Room, Lamont Library
Harvard University
Cambridge

Thursday, November 7, 5 pm – 6:30 pm
Seamus Heaney Memorial
Harvard Memorial Church
One Harvard Yard
Cambridge

Thursday, November 7, 6 – 7:30 pm
Laura Mullen
New England Conservatory
Pierce Hall
around the corner from 290 Huntington Ave.
Boston

Friday, November 8, 7:30 pm
Elizabeth (Louie) Galloway, Elena Harap and Alice Kociemba
Chapter and Verse Literary Reading Series
Loring-Greenough House
12 South Street
Jamaica Plain Center
$5

Friday, November 8, 6 pm
Tamiko Beyer, Kate Greenstreet and Deborah Poe
Publicly Complex Series
Ada Books
717 Westminster St.
Providence

Saturday, November 9, 12 pm
Gloria Mindock and Catherine Sasanov
Poetry: The Art of Words
Plymouth Center for the Arts
North Street
Plymouth, MA

Saturday, November 9, 2 pm
Donald Wellman
Toadstool Books
12 Depot Square
Peterborough NH

Saturday, November 9, 6 pm
Frank Bidart, Moe Pope, Betsy Gomez, Elizabeth Doran, Eve Strillacci, Alex Charalambides, Eloisa Amezcua
Featured Musical Artist: Julia LiGregni with the Jordan Carter Trio
Mr. Hip Presents: Reading Series UFORGE Gallery
767 Centre Street
Jamaica Plain
$8

Saturday, November 9, 7 pm
Mathias Svalina, Stefania Heim, and Phil Cordelli
A 2×2 Reading of Poetry
Lorem Ipsum Books
1299 Cambridge Street
Cambridge

Sunday, November 10, 2 pm
Moira Linehan and Michael McCarthy
Bestsellers Café
24 High Street
Medford, MA

Sunday, November 10, 3 pm
Jillian Weise
Weekend Poetry Series of the Friends
Concord Free Public Library
129 Main Street
Concord, MA

Monday, November 11, 6 pm
Tom Pickard
Katzenberg Center, 3rd Floor,
871 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston University

Tuesday, November 12, 7 pm
George Elliot Clarke and Don Share
Grolier Poetry Fall Reading Series
Grolier Poetry Book Shop
6 Plympton St.
Cambridge

Tuesday, November 12, 7pm
Charles Coe, Alexis Ivy, and Dennis Daly
Newton Free Library Reading Series
330 Homer St
Newton, MA
Open mic follows featured readers

Wednesday, November 13, 7:30 pm
Rhina Espaillat, Barbara Lydecker Crane, David Davis
Poetry And The Experience Of Nature
Joppa Flats Audubon Center
1 Plum Island Turnpike
Newburyport, MA

Thursday, November 14, 6 pm
Christopher Ricks on T.S. Eliot
Edison Newman Room
Houghton Library
Harvard University

Thursday, November 14, 7 pm
Sophie Cabot Black and Greg Delanty
Suffolk University Poetry Center
73 Tremont Street (entrance around corner on Tremont Place)
Suffolk Poetry Center Mildred F. Sawyer Library

Saturday, November 16, 10:30 am
Henry Street Poets, Chuck Williams and Joanne Lurgio
Wake Up & Smell the Poetry at HCAM Studios
77 Main St.
Hopkinton MA

Saturday, November 16, 3:30 pm
Carol Ann Davis and David R. Surette
Fuller Café
Brockton Poetry Series at the Fuller Craft Museum
455 Oak Street
Brockton

Sunday, November 17, 2-4 pm
Lee Sharkey and Melissa Tuckey
Brookline Poetry Series
Brookline Public Library
Main Branch in Hunneman Hall
Brookline
Open mike sign-up: 1:45 pm

Sunday, November 17, 3 – 5 pm
Shelby Allen, Susan Nisenbaum-Becker, Gary Whited
Calliope – Poetry Readings at the West Falmouth Library
(575 West Falmouth Hwy.  Rt. 28A)
Cape Cod
$5

Sunday, November 17, 3 pm
Lucy Ives and William D. Waltz
Jubilat / Jones Reading Series
Woodbury Room,
Jones Library
43 Amity Street
Amherst, MA

Monday, November 18, 6 pm
Omniglot Seminar: Pessoa and Other Poets in Portuguese
with Translator Richard Zenith
Woodberry Poetry Room
Lamont Library, Room 330
Harvard University

Monday, November 18, 8 pm
Sarah Arvio and Katie Peterson
Blacksmith House Poetry Series
56 Brattle Street
Cambridge
$3

Tuesday, November 19, 2:30 pm
Rachel Levitsky
McCormack Family Theater
70 Brown St.
Providence
Free and open to the public

Wednesday, November 20, 7 pm
Len Krisak and Mike Juster
Powow River Poets Reading Series
Jabberwocky Books (in the Tannery Mall)
50 Water St.
Newburyport
Free & open to the public

Thursday, November  21, 7 pm
Danielle Legros Georges and George Kalogeris
Rozzie Reads Poetry
The Community Room of Roslindale House
120 Poplar Street
Roslindale

Monday, November 25, 8 pm
Tanya Larkin and Jamaal May
Blacksmith House Poetry Series
56 Brattle Street
Cambridge
$3

Monday, December 2, 7 pm
Jane Bachner, Susan McDonough, and Lee Dunne
Newtonville Books
10 Langley Road
Newton

Tuesday, December 3, 6:30 pm
Frank Bidart
The Louisa Solano Poetry Series
Cambridge Public Library
449 Broadway, Cambridge

Wednesday, December 4, 6 pm
Louise Glück & Katie Peterson
Edison Newman Room
Houghton Library
Harvard University

Wednesday, December 4, 7 pm
Denise Bergman
Porter Square Books
25 White Street
Cambridge

Sunday, December 8, 12 pm
Dennis Daly and Lawrence Kessenich
POETRY:The Art of Words
Plymouth Center for the Arts
North Street
Plymouth, MA

Monday, December 9, 8 pm
Albert Goldbarth and Sharon Bryan
Blacksmith House Poetry Series
56 Brattle Street
Cambridge
$3

Sunday, December 15, 2 – 4 pm
Afaa Michael Weaver and Larissa Pienkowski
Brookline Poetry Series
Brookline Public Library
Main Branch in Hunneman Hall
Brookline
Open mike sign-up: 1:45 pm

Monday, December 16, 8 pm
Tamiko Beyer, Jenny Browne, and Kate Greenstreet
Small Animal Project
Outpost 186
186 1/2 Hampshire St
Cambridge

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Friday Five Plus Three (Gratitude Edition)

Gratitude doesn’t always come easy. Sometimes it’s a discipline, a practice. Sometimes I go through the motions without feeling inspired about it. But I do the motions anyway. Today’s gratitude list:

  1. daily reprieve from a chronic and deadly disease
  2. access to health care providers who assist when the other chronic and deadly disease rears its ugly head –I mean symptoms
  3. sunshine — albeit October sunshine, harsh and in short supply, still sunshine
  4. more clothes than I know what to do with
  5. fuzzy kitties who love me whether I go out or stay in
  6. a job that trusts me to do the right thing without breathing over my shoulder
  7. friends and family who call, text, and email
  8. a man who puts the kettle on for me every morning
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Toni Amato is Right, As Usual

The new writing group met last night for the first time. I’ve done my best to appear confident about this new venture, but anyone who knows me well knows the turmoil of the waters beneath the placid surface. Facilitating workshops is not new to me — I’ve done it in various venues and for various years for more than 20 years — but this particular project lies quite close to my heart. Fear of failure and fear of success dogged my steps in the months leading up to its opening.

I feel particularly grateful for the love and support of my two teachers: Toni, who first challenged me to consider the possibility of starting a workshop similar to his, but on the opposite side of the Boston hub. He’s provided support both practical and spiritual — and will no doubt continue to as my own confidence waxes and wanes. And Barbara, whose workshop sparked the necessity of finding a place to generate new stones to polish and polish under her guidance. She said to me, “My first workshop was two friends who were there for free, and one person who paid $40.” That was 30 years ago, and 125 books and countless journal publications have emerged from her workshop since.

This time last week, I was reciting a litany of fears to Toni, and he responded — as he often does — that the universe would give me just what I needed, moment by moment. Last night, that was a small group which merged effortlessly. And a group decision to focus on generating works of poetry, the form I am concentrating on myself.  In three hours we worked four different prompts, and by the end of the evening we felt expansive and full of possibilities.

We meet again in two weeks, when two more new members will join us. We have space for a few more, but whether the group stays small or expands to capacity, I’m sure the universe will provide just what is needed.

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The Burden of Bearing Fruit

Two years ago I read a piece in the Sun Magazine by a woman named Brenda Miller called The Burden of Bearing Fruit. It was the sort of article one finds there a great deal: a personal essay, contemplative, sometimes rambling, with a flash of beauty  — a surprise tie-up, an effortless making-sense of daily objects and events. The making-sense of art, which tells the true but tells it slant.

These essays often shame me in their seeming effortlessness in the same way that Martha Stewart shames wives and mothers all across America, or the way Oksana Baiul shames 12-year-old figure skaters. In my saner moments I remember that the authors of these essays (often English professors or professional writers) probably went through multiple drafts, worked and worked on each word and sentence, considered the form and flow of the piece, perhaps the thesis and the theme. In my less sane moments I wonder why my own work doesn’t appear in The Sun’s pages. Never mind that I’m focusing on honing my craft in poetry right now, not personal essays. Or that I have a full-time job writing meeting minutes and functional specifications. Why am I not better at it by now? Where is my Harvest-themed centerpiece? Where is my triple lutz?

But let me, for the sake of this moment, put aside those inner critics. Let me even put aside the notion that I might beat that little hater. And let me return to that phrase which has stayed with me for two years and more: the burden of bearing fruit. Miller describes her own complicated relationship to the cherry tree that graces her property. You’ll have to read the essay to catalog its full meaning, but what stays with me is the notion that as the tree ages it is released from the burden of bearing fruit. Approaching 40, years into an artistic recovery I can barely discuss without weeping, I’m well aware of this burden. The terrible secret of farming and gardening is that bringing in the harvest is just as difficult as the plowing, the sowing, the planting, and the tending. Once the fruit arrives it must be picked, it must be eaten, it must be shared, it must be preserved and set away for the winter.  Some of it always rots.

My tree has blossomed and begun to bear fruit. This evening I read at the Newton Free Library and the day after a brand new workshop begins meeting in my home.  It’s not the first time I’ve read to an audience, not the first time I’ve led a workshop, but the burden of bearing fruit remains. Perhaps this time the harvest will be more sustainable.

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I’m Reading at the Newton Free Library Next Tuesday, October 8

I just discovered that I am scheduled to read at the Newton Free Library on Tuesday, October 8 at 7pm. I’m so glad that Barbara at PoemWorks reminded me that Doug Holder had asked me to read for the series way back at the end of last December.

My reading is the day after the monthly PoemWorks reading at Newtonville Books. The following evening (Wednesday, October 9) I begin facilitating a writing group that will meet every other Wednesday through the beginning of December. So it’s going to be an all-writing kind of week for me.

Next month (Tuesday, November 12), two poets I know personally and greatly admire — Alexis Ivy and Charles Coe — will also be reading at the Newton Free Library. From the descriptions of the two folks scheduled to read with me on Tuesday — Wendy Ranan and Lawrence Kessenich — I will be in quite illustrious company myself. An open mic follows the reading.

If you are in town I would love to see you there. I know some of the Dverse Poets are Bostonians and would love to meet you in person. Directions by car and public transit are on the Newton Library website. Either way, wish me luck. It’s been some months since I’ve read in front of an audience.

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New Writing Group Forming in Boston

  • Image of a hand holding a pen to paperAll forms welcome: poetry, prose, fiction, non-fiction, memoir, truth, and beauty.
  • All people welcome: any age, race, class, sexuality, gender, nationality, or not.
  • All writers welcome: new writers, old writers, closet writers, porch writers.

We will focus on creating a supportive environment for generating new work until the group has established enough rapport for meaningful critique and revision.

We will also share experience and strategies for sending out work for publication.

First term meets 6:30-9:30 pm, every other Wednesday, Oct 9-Dec 4.

Fee is $150 for the entire term, payable in advance. You are welcome to attend one session as a guest to see if it is the place for you.

The workshop will be held in a private home on the 51 bus line between Forest Hills and Cleveland Circle. Parking is also available.

Space is limited so sign up soon.

Frances Donovan’s work has appeared in Lyrical Somerville, PIF Magazine, The Writer, Perimeter, and The dVerse Anthology: Voice of Contemporary World Poetry. She curated the Poetry@Prose reading series in Arlington, MA and is a member of PoemWorks: the Workshop for Publishing Poets. She also affiliated with Toni Amato’s Write Here Write Now workshop in Somerville, MA. You can find her online at www.gardenofwords.com

For more information or to sign up, use this contact form.

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Old Clients Are Like Gold

I’ve got only one or two clients left from my bad old days of self employment. It’s such a joy to work with people I’ve chosen. I’m helping Liz Anker put up her new WordPress site. It’s still in progress, but I think it’s pretty cool. Today we worked on this page.