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Boston Area Poetry Readings for March 2016

A drift of snow edges a new drift of sand
As edges grow deeper. It’s March, month of edges.
Wet rocks yield to pebbles like opening hands.

-Annie Finch, “Beach of Edges, from Spells: New and Selected Poems.

Boston trembles on the edge of winter: one day a seductive thaw, the next that damp chill particular to the Bay State. I’ve seen green shoots in the garden, surrounded by the detritus of winter. Clear that detritus from your mind with a little poetry. All venues are in Massachusetts unless otherwise noted.

Friday, March 11, 7:30 pm
Carla Schwartz, Preston Hood, Nina MacLaughlin
Chapter and Verse
Loring Greenough House
12 South Street
Jamaica Plain
$5

Continue reading “Boston Area Poetry Readings for March 2016”

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Interview with Poet Tom Daley, Author of House You Cannot Reach

Photograph of Tom Daley's Book House You Cannon Reach, displayed on a desktop with other items

I first met Tom Daley at a reading at the Zeitgeist Gallery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I’d moved to Boston a few years before, thrilled at the rich, diverse poetry scene and itching to dive in. Unfortunately, I hadn’t factored in the years it would take to acclimate to Boston’s notoriously chilly culture, or the way that living with my girlfriend would stifle my ability to write poetry, which requires a self-knowledge and candor incompatible with my struggles to reconcile our difficult relationship.

Photograph of poet Tom Daley
Poet Tom Daley. Photo credit: Devin Altobello

A few months after I moved from Brookline to Cambridge, I began dipping my toe in the literary waters. It was then that I discovered Regie Gibson’s reading series at the Zeitgeist and met Nicole Terez Dutton, who was just about to embark on a graduate program at Brown University. Nicole was one of the featured performers — I particularly remember the persona poems about her black ancestors. Tom Daley, a thin, greying man in tweeds, epitomized the sort of intellectual one might expect to find in Concord, the land of Thoreau’s Walden Pond. He read a poem in praise of Nicole, and the warmth and intensity of the piece stayed with me for more than a decade. I recently reconnected with Tom via Facebook and was thrilled to read his new collection House You Cannot Reach: Poems in the Voice of My Mother and Other Poems, published in 2015 by FutureCycle Press. He took the time to answer some questions about his work and his life.

Continue reading “Interview with Poet Tom Daley, Author of House You Cannot Reach”

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Abortion Spell, by Annie Finch

Let’s keep the world through its own balanced kiss,
the kiss come from women made of our own blood,
the holder, the cooler (redeeming the earth,
shaping the room where we give you your birth).
Hands born of woman will not stop this flood,
this generous, selfish, long-opening gift

— Annie Finch

from Spells: New and Selected Poems. Wesleyan University Press, 2013. Reprinted with permission of the poet.

Read an interview with Annie Finch here.

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Frances Donovan and Kate Wallace Rogers at Newtonville Books, March 7 2016

I’m one of the features at the PoemWorks monthly reading series in March, the beginning of crocus season. Come hear me and my fellow poet Kate Wallace Rogers reading our work next Monday, March 7. Details follow.

POETRY READING & Open Mic
Monday, March 7, 2016, at 7:00 PM
Newtonville Books
10 Langley Road
Newton, MA 02459
617-244-6619
www.newtonvillebooks.com

Free to the public

Join us for a poetry reading with Frances Donovan and Kate Wallace Rogers, members of the Workshop for Publishing Poets, directed by Barbara Helfgott Hyett, followed by an Open Mic. For more information about the workshop, see www.poemworks.com. Hosted by Richard Waring.

Frances Donovan’s work has appeared in many places, including Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Snapdragon, Marathon Literary Review, Ishka Bibble, and Gender Focus. She holds a degree in English from Vassar College and has studied with Barbara Helfgott Hyett and Toni Amato. She curated the Poetry@Prose reading series and has appeared as a featured reader at numerous venues in the Northeast, including the Newton Public Library and the PoemWorks Reading Series. Her workshop in Roslindale nurtures the seedlings of new poems. She enjoys candle-lit dinners, long walks on the beach, and writing about herself in the third person. You can find her climbing hills in Roslindale and online at http://www.gardenofwords.com.

Kate Wallace Rogers has been writing and performing poetry since second grade. With some friends in Dennis, Mass., she co-founded the Dragonfly poetry and music series. She has had work published in The Beaver and Red Weather. She self-published a slim volume of poetry silk-screened on Japanese folding paper. More recently, she has been a frequent participant and feature at the Mews coffeehouse and AMP gallery in Provincetown. Kate’s poetry weaves together her love of language, nature, and women. She is originally from New York City, but currently lives in Provincetown in Stanley Kunitz’s house. She loves swimming in the ocean year round.

Photo credit: Tejvan Pettinger via Flickr, CC 2.0

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Late February and March 2016 Boston Area Poetry Readings

It’s a balmy 50 degrees in Boston, which means that this evening we’ll have a rainstorm instead of a blizzard. April may be the cruelest month in England, but February is full of spiteful surprises in Boston. Still, the snowdrifts barely reach our knees and the days are growing exponentially longer. Celebrate with some poetry and some hot tea, while it’s still in season. All readings are in Massachusetts unless otherwise specified.

Saturday, February 20, 6:30 pm
Pablo Medina, Jennifer Barber, Eleanor Goodman, and Sam Cha
reading original works and new translations
Us & Them: Boston
Arts @ the Armory Cafe
191 Highland Ave #1A
Somerville

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Update: Five Things

  • My father-in-law is dying of cancer. He is dying at home with round-the-clock care, surrounded by his extended family. My father died in a public men’s room of an overdose. The contrast in details is pretty stark, but the feelings are much the same. And in the end, they’ll both pass through that gateway alone. Grief doesn’t live in a line, but a labyrinth. I’m surprised every time I turn a corner to find it there.
  • I have a pile of review copies in my office. Interviews with a couple of poets are in process, but none are ready for publication yet.
  • I’ve completed applications to three low-residency MFA programs. Yes, Emily Dickinson and Jane Austen didn’t need MFAs to become successful writers. But I’m not living in the 19th century. Who knows what will happen during or after my course of study? It still seems important to try.
  • I’ve spent three days out of the past two weeks in bed. Having an “invisible” chronic illness is especially frustrating at times like these. Yes, it’s exacerbated by stress, but it’s not exactly like I can keep my life from being stressful. And it’s true that certain preventative measures can keep the symptoms down, but it’s not very helpful to beat myself up about not taking them (or being able to take them) after the fact.
  • We have a brief respite from February’s slings and arrows. I’m going to take advantage of it right now and go for a walk before the winter weather returns with a vengeance.

Photo courtesy of Akif Mert via Flickr, CC2.0

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Boston Area Poetry Readings for February 2016

Imbolc has come and gone and the days are getting longer. Celebrate the first stirrings of spring with a little poetry. Below are updated listings for February 2016 poetry readings in Boston, Massachusetts and environs. All readings are in Massachusetts unless otherwise noted.

Friday, February 5, 7 pm
Jen Grow, Kathy Flann, and Gint Aras
Out of the Blue Art Gallery Too
541 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge
See more listings