Poems from the Left Bank: Somerville, Mass.Doug Holder's words are of the everyday on the colonial East Coast, breathing the slightest sighs into the women at the checkout counters and putting the sluggish steps into the old folks drudging through the streets of the yet-to-be-gentrified Somerville, a homey-feeling town snuggled against the liberal and youthful hips of Cambridge and well over the bridge from the harshness of Boston. Somerville wants so very much to be its own, as the quiet hipster squares and coffee shops are filled with poets, artists, lovers on computers, the old Portuguese community, and the young lower-to-middle class, each struggling alongside one another for a place in this world. Holder's words paint frames around these individuals, their joys and sadnesses, their static yet cyclic lives each crashing full-throttle into one another without ever realizing the kinetic flow of their buzz and hum. You meet these people on Holder's pages -- the women with their shopping carts; the patrons of the local pet store; the bottle ladies; the modern cafe lovers; the ghosts in the ancient colonial graveyards; the walkers; the bus riders -- portrait after portrait of each delicate individual, handled with detail and humor to come to life between these covers.
Copies can now be purchased online; or through the mail for $5 (plus $2 US shipping; $4 out-of-US shipping) via cash, check, or money order made out to Alternating Current, PO Box 398058, Cambridge MA 02139 USA; or via PayPal with the email address alt.current@gmail.com. All authors on our press receive royalties for each copy sold, and each purchase comes with three free random books from the archives while we clean house.
Copies can now be purchased online; or through the mail for $5 (plus $2 US shipping; $4 out-of-US shipping) via cash, check, or money order made out to Alternating Current, PO Box 398058, Cambridge MA 02139 USA; or via PayPal with the email address alt.current@gmail.com. All authors on our press receive royalties for each copy sold, and each purchase comes with three free random books from the archives while we clean house.
This book includes:
Cover art by Richard Wilhelm:
Somerville Yard
Poems by Doug Holder:
OLD WOMEN AT MARKETBASKET
PET STORE
TWO OLD WOMEN
BOTTLE LADY, SCHOOL ST., SOMERVILLE
OLD WOMAN OUTSIDE THE FAMILY DOLLAR STORE
HAMLET ST., SOMERVILLE
ROOMMATE WANTED
MODERN LOVERS
THE GRAVEYARD ON SOMERVILLE AVE.
"DADDY, IS HE A MONSTER?"
SPRING ON SCHOOL STREET
SOMERVILLE: WALKING TO UNION SQUARE
MOTHER LEADING HER BOY TO THE WOMEN'S ROOM
A WEED IN THE CONCRETE
DOZING AT THE GRAND CAFE
LOOKING AT A LONE WOMAN IN A BAR
FALLEN CHERUB OUTSIDE A LIQUOR STORE
DICK'S APARTMENT
I KNOW BERNIE, I CAN GET YOU IN
ON THE LAWN
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THIS ELECTRICAL WEEK (Ending 1/30/10)
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THIS ELECTRICAL WEEK (Ending 1/30/10)
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~~Reviews and mentions: Poems from the Left Bank: Somerville, Mass. by Doug Holder got some kind words from Dan Sklar HERE, a review in the upcoming Wilderness House Literary Review HERE, and some exposure on The Word HERE; The Sagging: Spirits & Skin by Jason Fisk was reviewed at Poet Hound HERE; and Alternating Current was mentioned in a Mighty Mercury article HERE.
please send all responses to alt.current@gmail.com
