Left In Lowell

The schedule is set for the Mass Poetry Fest 2009. I can’t even tell you how awesome last year’s was - and in its mere second year, this October boasts a much bigger, even better Festival. I block out the entire weekend for it - yes, I am a former poetry geek, it was my focus in college…but seriously, this rivals the Folk Festival’s music-related events in quality, and quantity, of poetry events. It’s first class.

Last year, after attending my first day, I was hit with the inspiration to write a poem for the first time since just after college, after attending workshops and readings and wandering around downtown Lowell on that bright, perfect autumn afternoon. For a long time, I’ve promised myself I would someday go back to writing poetry, but life, work, and my political activism has made that very difficult. For me, being immersed in others’ writings, and workshops, is the key to my own writing, and that’s something I can’t fit in daily right now. So at least I will get one weekend to bury myself in one of my most cherished loves - poetry. And who knows? Maybe I’ll write another one this year.

Go check out the new website and just-released schedule, and reserve your seat (tickets are free, but they need donations!).

Correction - I did write one poem since college…posted on this blog on July 28 2006 about the Folk Fest preparations. Not my best work and definitely not edited into a final form but there you have it.

Groan. Apparently MassHighway is going to work on the Plain St overpass of the Connector.

Now, like Mr. Lynch, I’m happy that bridges that are long overdue for work are slated for immediate projects, ones that will stimulate the construction industry and fix our infrastructure backlog, and that Lowell is getting its fair share of these projects.

But we just had a new traffic pattern created upon repaving that whole area. For a year with rough pavement, my car went bumpity bumpity once we hit Plain St, and now there’s an added light at that intersection, which just went into effect. (It’s a boon when waiting to turn onto Plain from the Connector, especially turning left, though frustrating when you could turn right on red but you can’t; it’s a curse when you are leaving Tanner St onto Plain and immediately have to try to maneuver your vehicle into the left lane so you are positioned to turn left onto the Connector after the overpass. Sigh.) And just wait til the new Target opens and traffic is increased…

All politics (and bridge working) is local I guess. I hope they don’t make it too difficult to travel around that area. It’s been kind of a pain waiting for everything to be done, and now that it is, the bridge gets construction. Meh.