Tag: reading

Merrill Oliver Douglas and Suzanne Cleary at BCAC!

Yesterday, it was my pleasure to attend a reading by my fellow Grapevine and Boiler House Poets Collective friend Merrill Oliver Douglas and Suzanne Cleary at the Broome County (NY) Arts Council.

Merrill and Suzanne met decades ago in Binghamton, where Suzanne grew up and where Merrill re-located for graduate school and then settled. Merrill grew up in New York City and Suzanne has lived in that area for over thirty years. Their mirrored biographies drew together a fun mix of people in attendance, including Merrill’s Grapevine poet-friends and some of Suzanne’s high school classmates. We filled the Artisan Gallery at the Broome County Arts Council, commandeering extra chairs as needed. Bonus: In addition to poetry, we enjoyed the BCAC Members’ Juried Exhibition on display this month.

The impetus for the reading was the release of Merrill’s first full-length poetry collection, Persephone Heads for the Gate, winner of the Gerald Cable Book Award published by Silverfish Review Press. We were treated to several poems from the new book, including the title poem, as well as a number of more recently written poems. As always with Merrill’s work, I was impressed by her ability to bring a unique but no-nonsense perspective to everyday objects and occurrences, curating just the right details to reveal the essence of her subjects. Persephone joins Parking Meters into Mermaids (Finishing Line Press, 2020) on the shelves at the Artisan Gallery. For those outside our area, they can also be ordered through the provided links.

This was my first opportunity to hear Suzanne Cleary read in-person and I loved it! She somehow manages to maintain energy and insight in longer narrative poems, a skill that I much admire but doubt I will ever attain. In honor of reading back in her hometown, Suzanne chose some poems with local ties, as well as those relating to different time periods and circumstances. Some were from her prior books (listings with ordering information here) while others were newer work. We all loved the first poem she read, which was about her experiences with reading Merrill’s work! We were also thrilled with the news that Suzanne will have a new book, The Odds, published in Spring 2025 by New York Quarterly Books. It was chosen by poet Jan Beatty as winner of the 2024 Laura Boss Narrative Poetry Award. Updated information should be available through the links I’ve provided or ask at your favorite bookstore.

Merrill and Suzanne answered audience questions and then engaged in conversation and book signing. It was a wonderful experience! I encourage you all to check out their work and enjoy!

Museum and reading with BHPC

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.

Time/Rate/Distance
after Cut Back Through (for Bjorn), Richard Nonas

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.

One-Liner Wednesday: Poetry Reading TONIGHT

For people in the North Adams, Massachusetts area, please join the Boiler House Poets Collective, currently in residence with The Studios at MASS MoCA, for a free reading at Bear & Bee Bookshop, 28 Holden St., North Adams at 7 PM with light refreshments to go along with the great poetry!

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/10/09/one-liner-wednesday-on-my-walk/

BHPC residency begins

Later today, I’ll be travelling to North Adams, Massachusetts to begin the 2024 Boiler House Poets Collective workshop-in-residence at The Studios at MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts).

It’s been lovely seeing the enthusiasm among my fellow poets as we’ve been doing our final preparations. Unfortunately, due to my current health complications, I’ve mostly been feeling apprehensive.

I’m used to spending long days and evenings during residency writing, editing, visiting the museum, workshopping, and eating/socializing with my poet-friends, but this year I have scaled my plans back significantly in deference to my current struggles with tinnitus, blurred vision, neck pain and stiffness, balance problems, fatigue, and brain fog. I’ve planned to do creative work in the mornings when I’m most likely to have mental clarity, spend most of the afternoon resting, and re-join the group for the evening.

This plan might work – or it might not. I need to be careful to listen to what my body is able to do that day and adjust because, if I push too hard, I risk the next day being a total loss.

I am not putting pressure on myself to generate new work if I don’t have the mojo to do so. There are plenty of poems that I could work on revisions. There’s also a lot of submission work I could do, which isn’t especially creative but does involve careful attention to detail.

It’s not that I haven’t had life complications at past residencies. I’ve done them during the final years of my parents’ lives when I was involved with their care and after their deaths when I was in the early phases of grief.

This situation feels different, though. While my brain was working differently when I was highly stressed or grieving, I still recognized what was happening in my head. The brain fog is more difficult. I need to divert part of my attention to processing what I see and hear and to how I move in order to keep my balance. My thoughts are slowed down and I easily lose my train of thought. I’m accustomed to mulling poems in my head before I sit down to write but it’s rare now that my brain has the power to generate a creative seed and allow it to germinate.

I think part of me is afraid that this state is my “new normal.” Without a diagnosis, treatment is elusive. We are working on that but it’s frustrating that I don’t have my accustomed level of mental acuity to bring to the process.

I’m also sad that I haven’t been able to workshop poems for months here with the Grapevine Poets and that will continue this week with BHPC. I miss seeing others’ work in progress and hearing the discussion about possible revisions. It’s a reciprocal relationship among the poets and very valuable for someone like me who came to poetry later in life without formal training in craft. I miss being able to do it, even though I always feel that I get more than I’m able to give in feedback to others.

As you can see from the graphic on this post, we will be doing a public reading on Wednesday, October 9 at 7 PM at the Bear & Bee Bookshop. I am determined to do that as well as I can. I am reading first when I’m most likely to have the needed energy. I chose poems and wrote out the welcome remarks I need to make so that I don’t babble or forget what I need to say. I haven’t practiced as much as I probably ought to have but will make sure to do at least a couple of run-throughs before Wednesady evening.

You may be asking why on earth I am still trying to do the residency in my compromised state. I am committed to the Boiler House Poets Collective and my current role as liaison to The Studios. Still, I wouldn’t be able to do this were it not for my trust in the BHPC members. Last year, we planned for members to take on different aspects of organizing the residency and everyone has stepped up to do their part and more. I am able to carpool with my local BHPC members so I don’t have to drive. I know that any of them will be willing to give me a hand, perhaps literally if I need it to help with my balance. I absolutely could not do this without their support and I appreciate it.

I’ll try to get some posts in from the residency to let you know how things are going. Prose is generally easier for me to write than poetry so maybe that will work out. Maybe not.

I’ll try to listen to my body.

Wish me luck.

Boiler House Poets Collective at the Bear & Bee!

For North Adams, Massachusetts area folks, the Boiler House Poets Collective invites you to a reading at the Bear & Bee Bookshop, 28 Holden St., North Adams, on Wednesday, October 9, at 7 PM.

This is our only public event during our week as a workshop-in-residence at the Studios at MASS MoCA.

The reading will be a sampler of the work of our ten residents this year, lasting about an hour, followed by Q&A and light refreshments.

Bear & Bee will be selling books by our poets with the authors available to do signings.

Please join us for this free event!

One-Liner Wednesday: Anger by Merrill Oliver Douglas

SWWIM Every Day is featuring the poem “Anger” by my fellow Grapevine and Boiler House poet Merrill Oliver Douglas, with the special bonus of a recording of Merrill reading her work. Enjoy!

This post is brought to you through Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays. Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/09/11/one-liner-wednesday-do-you/

Recording of Fall Forever

(Photo credit: The Fenimore Art Museum website)

The recording of the staged reading of Eva Schegulla’s Fall Forever is now available on the Fenimore Art Museum YouTube channel for a limited time. It will likely be taken down mid-June 2024.

I wrote about the staged reading here. I know through reading Eva’s blog, Ink in My Coffee, that she has already completed revisions that grew from the staged reading and that she is submitting it for fully staged production. I’ll be sure to keep you posted when it debuts so that you can attend if you are in the neighborhood.

Meanwhile, enjoy the recording for the next month!

Ada Limón at Smith College

About the featured image: Ada Limón, as poet laureate, has begun an initiative called Poetry in Parks in conjunction with the National Parks Service. To complement this project, she invited poets to write new work centered on our relationship with nature. In April, Milkweed Editions published You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World as a testament to that enduring relationship.

Ada Limón, 24th poet laureate of the United States, gave an amazing reading at my alma mater, Smith College, on the last day of National Poetry Month, April 30, 2024, followed by a conversation with Matt Donovan, director of the Boutelle-Day Poetry Center at Smith.


So many things struck me about the reading, many of which resonate with my own poetic sensibilities. The sense of place and relationship with the natural world. The vast possibilities for poems that surrounds us. The exquisiteness of short poems, just long enough to offer what needs to be said. The way the mind seeks myriad connections. That there are poems written for oneself that may never be shared with others. The interest in received forms without the compulsion to write them for public consumption. The honesty and authenticity of her work and of her speaking between poems and responding to questions.

I was not able to be there in person but I know John M. Greene Hall, where the reading took place, well, having spent many hours there as a student rehearsing and performing with choral groups and practicing the organ. It’s a cavernous space, which seats about 2,000 people. I was awed at the intimacy that Ada Limón was able to project, as though she were reading and talking with a small circle of friends in a living room after dinner.

I wish I had been able to be there.

Maybe, someday, I will hear her read in person.

Grapevine Poets at BCAC ’24

On Saturday, April 27, seven of the Grapevine Poets happily returned to the Broome County Arts Council’s Artisan Gallery to offer a reading in honor of National Poetry Month.


We decided to use the format of our first group reading at BCAC in April ’23, with each poet reading their own work together with that of another poet. After a welcome from Connie Barnes, BCAC’s Gallery and Education Manager, and introduction from Merrill Douglas, Richard Braco gave a moving tribute to Myron Ernst, the local poet who was the origin of what grew into the Grapevine Poets and who passed away over the winter. Myron’s work appeared in many journals over the decades. His 2013 collection, God Time Creosote, follows his life from childhood through old age.

My own selections this year centered on the interplay of the arts, history, and our current social circumstances. I read two of my yet-to-be-published ekphrastic poems, “Revelation in Shadow” and “Memphis, Tennessee,” along with Robert Frost’s “Choose Something Like a Star,” which was set to music by Randall Thompson and performed by the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton at our concert earlier this month.

One of the things I especially liked about our reading this year was the frequent expressions of how important community is for us as poets. While the stereotype of writers in general and poets in particular is that they are off alone in a secluded spot scribbling away, the reality is that our work is often strengthened by coming together to share our works-in-progress with our fellow writers. I often acknowledge the Grapevine Poets, the Boiler House Poets Collective, and the Binghamton Poetry Project in my bios because I know I would never have been able to publish without their example, advice, and support. During National Poetry Month, it was good to acknowledge what we are to each other as poets.

This year’s participants were (left to right) with quilt exhibit in the background: Sharon Ball, Wendy Stewart, Susan Thornton, Richard Braco, Joanne Corey, Jessica Dubey, and Merrill Douglas.


After the reading and Q&A, there was time for us to greet our guests, browse the Artisan Gallery, and visit the POETREE, which is pictured above. Several of the Grapevine Poets had poems that were part of the POETREE display, which showcased short, spring- or renewal-themed poems from local writers.

Many thanks to Connie Barnes and the Broome County Arts Council for inviting us to read with them in honor of National Poetry Month. We Grapevine Poets look forward to more collaborations in the future.

Write Out Loud 2024 video now available!

I’m pleased to share the video of the Write Out Loud 2024 performance, which was just released last night.

If you expand the description of the video, you can read the program, which is helpfully indexed to bring you to the beginning of each segment, first the writer’s biography and then their poem, essay, short story, or play. If a piece is performed by someone other than the writer, that information is included, as well.

With 22 writers represented, the full video is two hours, so it is nice to have it organized in this way so a viewer can easily choose segments to watch when they have time.

You can read my blog post about my participation in Write Out Loud 2024 here .

My thanks once again to Mike Tamburrino, Christine Juliano, the Fenimore Art Museum, and the Glimmer Globe Theatre for including me in Write Out Loud 2024 and making it such a memorable experience.

I hope that I will be able to submit work for future Write Out Loud performances and, perhaps, be fortunate enough to be included again. Writers within a 100-mile radius of Cooperstown, New York, can be on the lookout for the submission call coming out this fall for Write Out Loud 2025. Playwrights from that same geography should look for the NEXT! series, which offers staged readings of new work. You can read my post about Eva Schegulla’s Fall Forever, which was part of NEXT! 2024, here.

If you are visiting the Cooperstown area, be sure to check out the Fenimore Art Museum and their partner-across-the-road, the Farmers’ Museum. Both museums have winter closures; the links should take you to the page with their hours and dates for the current year.

To hear more about what it’s like to live in Cooperstown, which most people know as home to the Baseball Hall of Fame, check out the final piece of Write Out Loud 2024, Robert Harlow’s “Cooperstown, an insider’s guide.”

You might pick up some tips…