Going Public, Early Years (1976-1981)
In the black hat, I’m reading with members of the Merrimack Valley Poets’ Lab at an arts festival in Lowell in 1981. In the group on this day, from the left, are Alice Davis, Cynthia Ward, Jim Cornie, and (maybe) Bill Dubie.
With a pamphlet of poems to prove that I was serious, at twenty-two years old I began to read my poems in public and publish my work. A couple of years before, as a college freshman at Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass., I had begun to think about writing as a public action. I wrote stories and sent guest editorials to the local newspaper. Poems came in the next stage. I was a political science major and thought in terms of civic life.
After college, I accepted invitations to read my work and speak about writing, taking offers that came my way. I also looked for opportunities to read poems to audiences or on radio. It was a little like being in a garage band and playing one-night stands at random clubs and school dances, except I was usually a solo act. I watched for calls to submit work for consideration at publications and often sent in poems. As a beginner, I didn’t understand the publishing hierarchy. One can look back and either cringe at some early decisions or accept the bumpy do-it-yourself path toward a readership. I operated on several levels at the same time, placing work in local publications, regional and national literary magazines, and eventually in university journals and a high-quality anthology. I also released a few thin pamphlets of poems to get started. By 1981, after eight years of self-directed effort, as well as encouragement from friends and the writers I had met and learned from, I believed I had a foothold in the writing world. I thought of myself as a writer. Two years later, seeking to learn more in a structured setting, i was accepted into the Master of Fine Arts Program in Writing at the University of California, Irvine, where I stayed for a year before I was offered a chance to be the cultural affairs director of the Lowell Historic Preservation Commission, U.S. Dept. of the Interior. At the LHPC, I worked on the development of a new and innovative national park in Lowell.
I’m sharing the lists below to show what I did to get going as a writer. I didn’t have a game plan. I didn’t know any creative writers at first. I was on track to go to law school and get involved in local government. I didn’t expect to go down the writer’s path. I’m thankful for the support I received in my community and from literary folks whom I met. This is not a typical thing to attempt, but the effort seemed worthwhile from the start. I’ve had a lot of good experiences along the way. Someone else, young or old, reading this “map of activity” might be inclined to explore the writing life for him- or herself. I’m seventy years old and still going, still learning and reading, still figuring out how to match the writing with readers. — PM, 2/18/2024.
Poetry Readings (activities in Massachusetts unless otherwise noted)
April 1976: Regional public library radio network, WLTI-FM, University of Lowell
May 1976: Dracut High School Arts Festival
Fall 1976: Andover High School English class guest
February 1977: Envision Lowell film project, A.G. Pollard’s Restaurant, Lowell (with local writers and actors reading historical literary texts and other writers reading their own work)
March 1977: Gallery 21, Lowell
April 1977: Memorial Hall Library, Andover (with the Poets’ Lab)
May 1977: Moses Greeley Parker Library, Dracut (with the Poets’ Lab); Dracut High School Arts Festival
June 1977: Haverhill Public Library (with the Poets’ Lab)
August 1977: Unitarian Church, North Andover (with the Poets’ Lab)
September 1977: Hampden-Sydney College creative writing workshop guest, Virginia
November 1977: Dracut High School Literary Series; Gallery 21, Lowell (with the Poets’ Lab)
December 1977: Women’s Book Discussion Group guest, Chelmsford
January 1978: Church Supper, Unitarian Church, North Andover (with Steve Perrin)
February 1978: Recording & broadcast of poems with music, WJUL-FM, University of Lowell; Lowell Public Library (with the Poets’ Lab); Reading Series, New England Small Press Association & Stony Hills book review tabloid, Rising Sun restaurant, Newburyport (with Steve Perrin)
March 1978: Recording & broadcast of poems with music, WJUL-FM, University of Lowell
April 1978: Memorial Hall Library, Andover (with the Poets’ Lab); University of Lowell, poetry writing workshop guest; Lowell Cooperative Learning Center, poetry workshop guest, Lowell Public Library
May 1978: Reading by contributors to Soundings literary magazine, Salem State College, Salem; The Eighth Day Creative Community Center, Marblehead (with others)
June 1978: Uncle John’s natural food restaurant, Bucksport, Maine (with other writers and folksingers Willie Claflin and Lola White Claflin)
October 1978: Stevens Library, North Andover (with the Merrimack Valley Poets, formerly the Poets’ Lab)
February 1979: Stevens Library, North Andover (with the Merrimack Valley Poets); Impressions of the Merrimack, multi-image slide-show taping, Lowell City Fair project of the Comprehensive Employment & Training Act program [CETA] (with others)
March 1979: “University Mornings,” ULowell Foundation, University of Lowell (with William Aiken and Robert DeYoung)
April 1979: Book Affair ’79, Old Cambridge Baptist Church, Cambridge (with others)
May 1979: Expo ’79 arts festival, Liberty Hall, Lowell Memorial Auditorium, Lowell
October 1979: Poetry course guest, English Dept., University of Lowell
March 1980: “Radio Anthology of Current Local Poets,” University of Lowell Forum, Sunday talk show, WSSH-FM
August 1980: Nauset Weekly Calendar Authors Reception, Myconos Restaurant, Yarmouthport
October 1980: First Congregational Society, Special Worship Service with poems and songs, Chelmsford (with others)
November 1980: Poetry course guest, English Dept., University of Lowell
Publications: Journals, Magazines, Newspapers, Broadsides
Echoes of the Unlocked Odyssey, 1974; Shadows of the Elusive Dream, 1975; Reflections of the Inward Silence, 1976 (these three are amateur anthologies)
The Communicator, 1975, alternative newspaper, Lowell
The Advocate, 1975, University of Lowell campus paper
The Northern Shopper, 1977, local tabloid, Dracut
The Lawrence Post, 1977, newspaper, Lawrence
Apple Tree Review, 1978, Marlborough, New Hampshire (multiple appearances)
Loom broadsides, 1978, Lowell
Road Apple Review, 1978, Oshkosh, Wisconsin
Soundings East, Salem State College, Salem 1978 (twice)
Hollow Spring Review, 1978, Western Mass.
Tightrope, 1978, Western Mass.
This Time, 1978, alternative newspaper, Orland, Maine (multiple appearances)
Aspect, 1979, Somerville
Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, 1979, Hampden-Sydney College, Virginia
Milling Around, 1980, National Park Service tabloid newsletter, Lowell
Dracut Annual Town Report, 1980, Dracut
Moody Street Irregulars, 1981, Clarence Center, New York
San Fernando Poetry Journal, 1981, Southern California
The Wisconsin Review, 1981, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh
Artifacts, 1981, art co-op newsletter, Lowell
The River’s Reach, 1981, Merrimack River Watershed Council tabloid
The Aspect Anthology, 1981, Somerville, literary magazine collection
Publications: Books and Chapbooks/Pamphlets
Horsefeathers & Aquarius (Dracut: Northern Printing & Publications, 1976)
Marking Fresh Ice (Dracut: Northern Printing & Publications, 1977)
Focus on a Locus (Chelmsford: Yellow Umbrella Press, 1980)
The New England Poetry Engagement Book 1980 (Chelmsford: Yellow Umbrella Press, 1979), co-editor with Eric Linder
Essays from the Lowell Conference on Industrial History (Lowell: LCIH, 1981), co-editor with Robert Weible and Oliver Ford.