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By Doug Holder
Off The Shelf
This
will be my ninth year reading, hosting, and kibitzing at the Boston
National Poetry Month Festival April 4, 2009. The festival was founded
by Bagel Bard Harris Gardner and it is still going strong. This year,
like the others, Somerville poets will be represented. The Somerville
contingent includes: CD Collins, Tim Gager, Afaa M. Weaver, Dick
Lourie, and Ifeanyi Menkiti. Here is a press release that will give you
all the inside dope…hope to see you there!
CO-SPONSORS:
Tapestry of Voices & Kaji Aso Studio in partnership with the Boston
Public Library, SAVE the DATE, Saturday, April 4th 10:00 A.M.- 4:45
P.M. OPEN MIKE: 1:30 to 4:00P.M. The Festival will be held at the
library's main branch in Copley Square. FREE ADMISSION
53 Major and Emerging poets will each do a ten minute reading; ALSO
Featuring
six extraordinarily talented prize winning high school students: Dianna
Willard & Joshua Mejia from Boston Latin High School; Yolanda Cruz,
Peter Li & Yamira Serret: Boston Arts Academy; Gabriella Fee:
Walnut Hill School for the Arts. These student stars will open the
Festival at 10:00 A.M. SAM CORNISH, Boston's current and first Poet
Laureate will open the formal part of the Festival at 11:00 A.M. 52
additional major and emerging poets will follow.
POETRY MARATHON
Some
of the many luminaries include SAM CORNISH, Diana Der Hovanessian,
Richard Wollman, Jennifer Barber, Afaa M. Weaver, Barbara
Helfgott-Hyett, Dan Tobin, Ellen Steinbaum, Charles Coe, Ryk McIntyre,
Elizabeth McKim, Regie O'Gibson, Kate Finnegan, Michael Bialis, Gary
Tucker, (Kaji Aso Studio), Marc Widershien, Sandee Story, CD Collins,
Marc Goldfinger, Diana Saenz, Stuart Peterfreund, Valerie Lawson,
Joseph DeRoche, Frannie Lindsay, Ifeanyi Menkiti, Dick Lourie , Mark
Pawlak, Lainie Senechal, Harris Gardner, Joanna Nealon, Susan Donnelly,
Irene Koronas, Doug Holder and a Plethora of other prize winning poets.
This Festival has it all: Professional published poets, celebrities, numerous prize winners, student participation, OPEN MIKE.
Even
more, it is about community, neighborhoods, diversity, Boston, and
Massachusetts. This popular tradition is one of the largest events in
Boston's Contribution to National Poetry Month. FREE ADMISSION!!!
FOR INFORMATION: Tapestry of Voices: 617-306-9484 or 617-723-3716
Library: 617-536-5400
Wheelchair
accessible. Assistive listening devices available. To request a sign
language interpreter, or for other special needs, call
617-536-7855(TTY) at least two weeks before the program date.
Lyrical Somerville edited by Doug Holder
Cameron
Mount is a substitute teacher at Somerville High, and is also a member
of the Davis Square Bagel Bards. He recently received his MFA from
Emerson College. To have your work considered for the LYRICAL send it
to: Doug Holder 25 School St. Somerville, Mass. 02143
dougholder@post.harvard.edu.
Abandoned Chair
A leaf-littered chair sits
in the woods behind
the school.
The deskless seat stares
at train tracks, nothing,
and wishes for an occupant,
oblivion, between trees
in autumn's fall.
Leaves weep and pool
beneath the abandoned,
drowning the lonely
in the forgotten dead.
They crunch in my booted tread.
I steal out
to learn the unteachable
lessons of decay,
to share the solitude
of noon.
Co-dependent cast-offs
supporting each other
in the certainty of a sharp
October afternoon.
–Cameron Mount
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