(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries and letters to the Editor of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

By Ken Brociner

The ongoing controversy over the war in Gaza has, once again, brought to the surface the dividing line between the two wings of the American Left.

The largest and most effective wing of the Left is made up of millions of progressive activists, writers, voters, and elected officials who are pragmatically working to achieve fundamental changes in our domestic and foreign policies. They do so by strategically challenging the powers that be in ways that unite as many people as possible.

Join the Assembly Row Development team, the City of Somerville, and Ward Councilor Matt McLaughlin for a virtual neighborhood meeting. Wednesday, August 21, 6:00 p.m. Dial-In Info: Zoom meeting: https://frit.zoom.us/j/96871731950?from=addon In this meeting, the development team will present the conceptual design(s) for Block 9 at Assembly Row. There will be an opportunity to discuss ideas and feedback. Contact Councilor McLaughlin at mattforward1@gmail.com or Sarah Lewis at slewis@somervillema.gov if you have difficulty accessing the virtual neighborhood meeting.

Eagle Feathers #311 – British Landing

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

It was the end of the summer in 1774. In Boston, tensions between the occupying British Army regulars and the Massachusetts Colonists were at a near boiling point. For years, citizens had suffered intolerable acts and taxation. British Tories, or citizens in favor of English rule, were moving closer to the city for protection, and local town farmers began withdrawing their gunpowder stores from the colony’s arsenal at Charlestown’s Quarry Hill.

Sam Cornish Award recipient Gloria Mindock.— Photo by Paul Miller

On Sunday, August 11, Somerville Poet Gloria Mindock was honored with the Sam Cornish Award at the Longfellow House, Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site in Cambridge.

It goes without saying that not everyone gets their way when election time rolls around. There are winners and losers, the satisfied and the disgruntled. As passionately as we may feel about our pet issues of interest, the inevitable day comes when our convictions are put to the test and the results are set in stone, for better or worse, depending on which side you are standing on.

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Interview by Doug Holder/ New England Poetry Club – Board of Directors

Recently, I was out in Amesbury, Ma. for a memorial reading for the late Poet Laureate of Amesbury, Lainie Senechal. The reading was on the grounds of the Whittier House. There I met poet Lisa Usani Phillips, the current Poet Laureate, and she told me she has a new book of poetry out titled Guest People (Wheeling Tern, 2022). She generously agreed to this interview.

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Gary Whited is a poet, philosopher and psychotherapist. His first book titled, Having Listened, won the 2013 Homebound Publications Poetry Contest. In 2014 it received a Benjamin Franklin Silver Book Award, and in 2015 was translated into Russian and a bilingual edition was published.  His new book, Being, There, includes new poems along with his translation of the ancient Greek fragments of Parmenides from the 5th century BCE. This book dances between the poetic voice of Parmenides and the poetic remembrances of a young life on a prairie cattle ranch. His poems have appeared in journals, including Salamander, Plainsongs, The Aurorean, Atlanta Review, Comstock Review, The Wayfarer, Poetry Daily, The Red Letters and Kasparhauser.