This is a small part of a mural currently being installed at Sugar Lips Ice Cream Shop in Johnson City, NY, USA.
Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/07/22/one-liner-wednesday-heres-me/
Just proving that I made it through the reading event at the Broome County (NY) Arts Council last night.
Things went well with poems, a short story in translation, music, paintings, and a film, all represented.
Thanks to Connie, Ann, and all the BCAC staff for making the America 250 exhibition and event possible. Thanks also to fellow poet Samantha Terrell who sent me this photo that her husband took while I was reading.
Binghamton NY area folks are invited to an event celebrating the Broome County Arts Council’s America 250 project tomorrow, July 16, at 6:30 PM, in which I will be participating.
This friendly invitation is part of Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays series. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/07/15/one-liner-wednesday-hey-dilly-dilly/
Folks in the Binghamton, New York area can visit a special exhibition at the Broome County Arts Council, beginning today, July 3rd, and continuing throughout the month of July.
The official opening is tonight from 6-9 PM for First Friday. There will be visual and literary arts on display around the theme of our personal American heritage.
I am happy to announce that my poem, “Giovanni”, about my Italian-speaking, immigrant grandfather will be part of the exhibition.
On Thursday, July 16th at 6:30 PM, there will be a reading event in conjunction with the exhibition which will include the authors presenting their poems and personal recollections.
Please, join us, if you are able!
For the past several years, the Boutelle-Day Poetry Center at my alma mater, Smith College, has offered a Blackout Poetry Project to the Smith community, including alums. In the blackout poetry style, one takes a page of pre-existing text and crosses out words or letters to create a poem. The pages are then sometimes embellished with color or other visual art elements. I have participated in prior years, such as the year when the theme was Emily Dashes, using the poems of Emily Dickinson.
This year’s theme is Monster Mash, creating blackout poetry using pages from Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein. As you can imagine, the work is quite dark in tone, so I decided to take page 22, which was sent to me from the Center, and transform it into a brighter message.
As it may be difficult to read from the photo, the words I chose to highlight are:
arouse a multitude
excite good people
restore life
a new promise
My visual artist friends will, I’m sure, forgive my rudimentary collage but I felt that we are all in need of a bit of sunshine today.
(Hearts by Angie Traverse)
Today is the 21st anniversary of the death of my friend Angie.
I’m thinking today about what is lost when a person dies at a younger-than-expected age. Angie was 54.
During one of her remissions, Angie and her spouse bought a second home on a lake that was special to their family. Angie told me she imagined grandchildren visiting there some day. I imagined visiting, perhaps with grandchildren of my own.
At the time, our children were tweens and teens.
Now, I have granddaughters, who are far away in London, UK.
I know that Angie’s children have children of their own, although I’m not sure how many or what their ages are. I imagine that they go visit the lake house sometimes. I imagine they tell stories about Angie so that her grandchildren have some inkling about who and how she was, even though she died long before they were born.
I imagine that there are still touches of Angie’s artistic and decorating skills on display.
I imagine that Angie’s spirit is still alive in her children.
Somehow.
Eric Carle, beloved author/artist of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and many other books, lived in western Massachusetts where I grew up and I’m very happy that Bombas chose to honor his legacy with a line of socks for both children and adults.
Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/07/30/one-liner-wednesday-i-heart-tomatoes/
“…and this was said to me by a cryptologist: If you think technology is going to solve your problems, you don’t understand technology and you don’t understand your problems.”
~~~ Laurie Anderson
Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays and/or Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/15/one-liner-wednesday-jusjojan25-the-15th-be-colourful/
Our family has lots of mugs.
Lots.
There are Big Hug mugs that came years ago filled with FTD flowers. A pair of floral mugs that B and I received as a wedding gift 42 years ago. Mugs from my various Smith College reunions. A line of mugs related to B’s jobs. A mug with children from around the world that was given to me by the middle school principal years ago as a thank-you for being on the building planning team. Some hand-crafted ones which double as works of art. A Doctor Who mug that changes its design depending on the temperature of the liquid inside. Some mugs designed for soup instead of beverages. Sandra Boynton mugs spanning several decades.
Our most recent acquisition is a Sunday Today mug that T and I gave to B for Father’s Day. Its claim to fame is that it is very big, although, of course, it isn’t obligatory to fill it all the way. However, if you do, you need to use two tea bags.
I don’t use mugs very often myself. I don’t drink coffee or tea. I used to love cocoa but it riles up one of my medical conditions. I sometimes will drink white hot chocolate in the cooler weather or make hot milk with spices but it isn’t that frequent.
I do, though, like having reminders of our past in the cupboard, even when they make me nostalgic, like the mug from our children’s elementary school or from the elementary school where my father-in-law was principal for decades. He passed away in 2005, a few years after he retired.
Some day, we will have to downsize and cull some of our mugs.
It will be hard.
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “mug.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/10/25/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-26-2024/
Continuing with stories from the Boiler House Poets Colllective workshop-in-residence at The Studios at MASS MoCA…
Yesterday was a loooong day here in North Adams. I managed to get some studio time in the first part of the morning, including writing another section of the poem I started my first day here. If anything, it got a bit darker/starker. I’m not sure if this will be the final section or if one more may appear before the end of residency. I just know it’s unlikely to be today.
I went to the museum when they opened at 10:00. My goal was to blitz the new exhibits and take some photos for future reference. I also collected the guides for the new work to use as reminders and background if I decide to write some ekphrastic poems. MASS MoCA is not a collecting museum. While there are some long-term exhibits, most are only here for a year or so before moving on to another location. It’s one of the things that keeps returning here every year fresh. I wanted to do a walk-through as soon as possible – the museum was closed on Tuesday – so that I’d have time to let some ideas percolate and then return to specific pieces to take notes or even draft new poems.
I did, though, re-visit some of my long-term favorite exhibits, including our namesake Boiler House. (I have a poem about that.) The photo above was taken there. For some reason, this equipment really caught my eye this year, perhaps because it is colorful among the rust.
I was also on the lookout for the formerly upside-down tress of Natalie Jeremijenko’s Tree Logic. (I have a poem about that.) The piece had been in the courtyard at MASS MoCA’s entrance for almost 25 years, with the trees periodically swapped out and planted. As they return to their natural position, the bends in the trunk and branches eventually straighten. Positive phototropism! The last six trees were planted near Richard Nonas’ Cut Back Through (for Bjorn). I have a poem about that, too, which I will actually share here. This is a revised version of the poem that first appeared in Emulate.
Three thrones hold court,
sun-warmed, polished granite;
ancient mica flecks five
rough-hewn footstools.
Bees prefer surrounding clover,
sweet white sustenance for inevitable
winter, oblivious to any human,
serve their sisters and queen.
I, too green, too new,
too fragile for this place,
settle on footstool,
absorb warmth of sun,
strength of stone,
whole-heartedness of bees.
After being on my feet for so long, my neck and back were tired and I accepted the offer that my apartment-mate had made to rest on her mat in her studio, which is outfitted with an acupressure mat for the back and neck. That revived me enough to be ready for our group lunch at 1:00.
After lunch, we took two of our new BHPC members on a tour of the Boiler House, which is a fun tradition.
Then, I went to our apartment to rest for the afternoon to get ready for our reading. I scooted out for an early solo dinner at Boston Seafood, which has been in North Adams since before I can remember in the 1960s. Bonus: they serve mocha sundaes, one of the few places left that holds to that North Adams tradition. (I have a couple of mocha poems, of course.)
The reading was at 7 PM at The Bear & Bee Bookshop. I’m pleased to say that we were standing room only and the reading was very well received. Through the miracle of alphabetical order, I was first up and read three North Adams poems, one about Drury High School, an ekphrastic poem about Xu Bing’s Phoenix which ties into some local history, and one about the public library. I was grateful to be first so that I could enjoy the rest of the reading. There were even some questions during the Q&A!
While most of the poets went to a neighboring restaurant for dinner/celebrating after the reading, I went back to the apartment to lie down and rest my neck and back. When my apartment-mate came home, we talked for a couple of hours – or maybe closer to three? – before turning in.
The long day with lots of walking and stairs and standing had gotten to me, though. My neck, shoulders, and back all tightened up and I had a lot of trouble sleeping. Today is going to be a slow day. I’m in my studio now but will probably head back to the apartment after I post this to rest and/or nap before lunch at 1. I’ll probably need to spend most of the rest of the afternoon prone, too, in order to be upright for supper out and evening discussion. It’s annoying to have to spend so much time lying down and resting but everyone is having a good and fruitful experience with our residency and I’m very grateful for that and for being here, even though I have unaccustomed limits this year.
Joanne Corey 