This is February 1st but let’s not forget January. The month that brings in the new year. This year it has been a forgiving month–mild and with little snow. So  poet Valerie Querica Prescott brings it all home with her poem.

Somerville Bagel Bard Zvi Sesling gets Poet Laureate for Brookline

I am a lover of irony. It seems that a Somerville Bagel Bard Zvi A. Sesling (Who resides in Brookline) lobbied and spurred the city on to have a Brookline Poet Laureate. I told him about the lack of interest in our beloved burg and it inspired him to get one for his town…they finally saw the light. The light in Somerville is still way, way at the end of the tunnel…sadly. Here is an article by Sesling about how he did it…

Well-Lindsay Slattery, one of my Creative Writing Students at Endicott College in Beverly, Mass.,  sent me a poem dedicated to Allen Ginsberg–the author of the groundbreaking poem Howl. Lindsay works at MASS LEAP, a Somerville-based literary outreach program founded by Jade Sylvan.

The Awful Rowing Toward Anne Sexton

Lawrence Kessenich is one of the managing editors of the literary magazine Ibbetson Street. He is also a former editor at Houghton Mifflin and worked with Diana Hume George and Diane Wood Middlebrook on the Selected Poems of Anne Sexton as well as a subsequent biography. He was generous enough to send this essay about his experiences to the Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene.

What better place for a memorable kiss than in Union Square across the street from the Sherman Café? Poet/Performer Marc Zegans captures this moment—and I can feel the steam rising.

Somerville Writer Janet Mendelsohn: Bringing her passion to the passion of her subjects

Janet Mendelsohn is a passionate writer who writes about other people’s passions. This Davis Square resident has the ability to hone in on her subject like some predatory literary bird, and peck out what makes them tick—to strain an analogy. I met Mendelsohn on a warm October morning in one of my favorite haunts in Union Square, the Sherman Cafe.

Ah!  Ain’t love grand? Without the flame of love and its inevitable ash–what would life be like?  Poet Jesse Morgan asks: “What is this thing called loved…?” The answer my friend is in the stars…
Jesse Morgan is a literary enthusiast and amateur poet. He received his undergraduate degree in political science from Brown University in 2010. He currently lives in Stow, Massachusetts.

Somerville Poet James Caroline: Plays Hard on the Page and the Stage

James Caroline started out mainly as a Slam poet getting his feet wet at the famed Cantab Lounge in Cambridge, Mass. when it was under the reign of Michael Brown. Since then he has become as respected on the stage as the page. And in fact the poetry is much more important to him than the performance.

A Creative Writing student in my class at Endicott College Taryn Moore wrote a poem titled “existing.”  And baby—sometimes it’s just good to get by with whatever gets you through the dark night of the soul.