My Quatrain Aftermath published by Molecule

 Thank you to editors M.P. Carver and Kevin Carey for publishing my poem (quatrain) Aftermath in Molecule, a tiny, but wondrous, little mag. Here is the link for Issue 12. https://moleculetinylitmag.art.blog  The piece is on page 37. 

Review of Speaking for Everyone, An Anthology of "We" Poems

 Use of the third person plural in poetry not only draws the writer away from the overly fashionable confessional style of versifying but adds a sense of universality and transcendence to the word-craft. The ability to connect the emotions and thoughts of a multitude suggests either deep arrogance (in bad poetry) or collective insight and consciousness (in good poetry). There are obvious pitfalls. For instance, “we” could simply be used as a metaphor for “I.” Or the writer may project his revelations onto others without any real sapience. Eric Greinke’s masterfully edited anthology entitled Speaking For Everyone avoids the pitfalls of this genre and, in his inspired choices of good poetry, bonds together the fears and hopes and commonalities inherent in the nature of mankind. For more of my review of Speaking for Everyone go here:  https://dougholder.blogspot.com/2025/02/speaking-for-everyone-anthology-of-we.html

Recent Interview of Me by Marcus Breen on Boston Media Theory

On Tuesday, February 11th Marcus Breen, a professor of communications at Boston College, interviewed me on his local TV show Boston Media Theory (NewTV in Newton MA). At the end of the discussion I read a couple of my union poems: The Electrician and Rat-Friend. Here is the YouTube link:

 https://youtu.be/o3UPr6_IVko

My Poem, Lines Written for Thomas Merton, Published

 My poem, Lines Written for Thomas Merton, was just published in Lyrical Somerville. Thank you to Doug Holder, the editor. Here is the link: https://www.thesomervilletimes.com/archives/138428

Recorded Grolier Poetry Reading

 Here is the link for the Grolier Poetry Book Shop Poetry Reading Held on October 2, 2024. Tom Daley hosted. I am the third and final reader (two thirds into the YouTube program):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yFeycJGsdA

Review of Homage by Kathleen Spivack

Spanning oceans and multiple generations, Homage, Kathleen Spivack’s newest collection of poems, delivers a movable feast of poets and other influencers of her estimable artistry. Spivack’s narratives celebrate famous poets, musicians, painters, and booksellers, many of whom she personally knew and some before her time, as well as teachers, a lighthouse keeper, and other oddly interesting individuals.

 Each of these poems seem perfectly weighted, upbeat, and toned with appreciation and even affection. Not an easy task given the ever-present and dark backstories of some of these fraught individuals. For more of my review of Homage go here:  https://dougholder.blogspot.com/2024/12/homage-by-kathleen-spivack.html

Review of The Biographer by David M. Katz

 Spectral power belongs to ages and cultures long past. But here and there evidence emerges of its elusive endurance in the form of poetic techniques such as projection and personalization. Here imagination (Cotton Mather aficionados take notice) provides the proper venue with insight, empathy, and understanding as value added attachments. In his new book of poetry, The Biographer, David M. Katz haunts his set of chosen characters with his mnemonic underpaintings. He merges his rich emotional values with the objective facts of his characters, real or fictional. For more of my review go here: https://dougholder.blogspot.com/2024/10/the-biographer-poems-by-david-m-katz.html

Reading at Grolier Book Shop

Thank You Grolier Poetry Book Shop for inviting me to read on October 2nd with two other excellent poets: Ann Taylor and Dianne Silvestri. Also thank you to Tom Daley for hosting and the full house crowd for being a full house crowd.

Grolier Poetry Reading October 2nd

 

Sign Up Link:

 https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/zynnpqu/lp/6b917f8a-5bfc-4aeb-96a2-ce2df6d73076

Review of New And Selected Poems by Charles Coe

Few confessional poets can tug hearts with their first-person observational words without sliding into sentimentality and mediocrity. Charles Coe proves the exception with this delightful new collection of narrative, bluesy poems entitled New And Selected Works. This compelling volume contains twenty new poems as well as an assortment of extraordinary poems from four earlier books. For more of my review of Charles Coe's New And Selected Poems go here: https://dougholder.blogspot.com/2024/08/new-and-selected-works-by-charles-coe.html

Odd Man Out Published

My newest book, Odd Man Out, has just been published by MadHat Press. Much thanks to to the editor, Marc Vincenz, for his excellent design work. The book is currently available at MadHat Press, The Grolier Poetry Book Store, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or through myself. 

Review of Knock-knock by Owen Lewis

Does surpassing life’s expectancy bestow any extraordinary blessings of goodness or happiness or vitality? Probably not. What about wisdom, surely….? Sorry, jury’s out. The legendary Methuselar, at 969 biblical years old and righteous to a fault, died a natural death (with all its attendant horrors), apparently not long-lived enough for passage on his grandson’s just recently built ark, specifically that same ark’s gene-saving journey into mankind’s brave new world.

 In his new poetry collection, Knock-knock, Owen Lewis notices the tragedy, the irony, and the humor in the impaired denouement of humankind. His protagonist, a card-carrying member of the AMA, wanders through a fading landscape of imagination and perceptiveness bundled in symptomatic non sequiturs. For more of my review of Knock-knock go here: https://dougholder.blogspot.com/2024/03/knock-knock-by-owen-lewis.html

Review of Blues, Prayers, & Pagan Chants by Diane Sahms

Are there parallel universes that complete us, that deliver meaning where there seems to be only chaos-- a place, perhaps, for prayers to be delivered, petitions to be filed, unholy chants to be rhythmically sounded out, and sadnesses to be unfolded into wonder and song? Diane Sahms, at least in a literary sense, seems to think so. In her marvelous new book, Blues, Prayers, and Pagan Chants Sahms connects with this other shadow (sometimes sacred) reality, often using memory as her catalyst and nature as her medium. For more of my review of Blues, Prayers, & Pagan Chants go here: https://dougholder.blogspot.com/2024/03/blues-prayers-pagan-chants-poems-by.html

Front and Back Covers for my Forthcoming Book

Front and Back Covers of my soon-to-be-published new book of poems, Odd Man Out. Thank you to editor Marc Vincenz and to Philip Nikolayev and Michael Casey for their kind and generous words. Much appreciated.

Front Cover of my Forthcoming Book: Odd Man Out

 

This is the front cover of my soon-to-be-published next book of poems. Much thanks to Marc Vincenz, the editor of MadHat Press.

Review of Uyghur Poems

 Poet Karen Klein has published an insightful review of Uyghur Poems (including 13 of my translations) on the Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene. Here is the link: https://dougholder.blogspot.com/2024/01/uyghur-poems-edaziz-isa-elkun-transaziz.html

13 of My Translations Re-published by Alfred A. Knopf (Penguin Random House)

Alfred A. Knopf (Owned by Penguin Random House) released Uyghur Poems on November 7th as part of their Everyman's Library Pocket Poets series. The book is being published simultaneously in New York, London and Toronto.

13 of my translations of Alisher Navoiy (or Ali-Shir Nava'i), chosen by editor Aziz Isa Elkun, himself a Uyghur poet, are included in this collection. 

Thank you to Gloria Mindock, who originally published  my translations in Twenty-One Ghazals by Alisher Navoiy (Cervena Barva Press), and Steve Glines, who designed much of that book. Their trust and superb work brought great attention to my translations.

From the Amazon Book Overview: In the face of the systematic persecution of the Uyghurs in China today, which has driven many of their poets into exile, Uyghur Poems is not only a remarkable one-volume tour of ancient and vibrant poetic tradition but also a vital witness to a threatened culture.

Review of Swift River Ballad by Thomas DeFreitas

When tonality rides along the surface in poetry the results often appear strangely profound. In Thomas DeFreitas’ new book, Swift River Ballad, the poet pilots his paper boat of sorts down a torrent of uplifting canticles and unsettling hymns, seeking the truth, but missing the dangerous rocks and eddies along the way.

DeFreitas stops his readers in their too comfortable tracks with curiously numinous images and sacerdotal references. His technique strikes one as unusual (in the sense of modern verse) and new. Depth is never a problem here. The poet’s perfect pitch phraseology allows submergence into subconscious levels when necessary and proper in an emotive sense. For more of my review of Swift River Ballad go here: https: dougholder.blogspot.com/2023/10/swift-river-ballad-poems-by-thomas.html

Review of It's Not Love Till Someone Loses An Eye by Clay Ventre

First books of poetry rarely surprise. Clay Ventre’s initial collection, It’s Not Love Until Someone Loses An Eye, does. His first-rate love poems are off-beat and oddly self-demolishing. He chisels each quirky narrative to innovative perfection and then keeps on chiseling. The new, miniature worlds created by Ventre’s persona and his persona’s lover highlight reality’s instability and logical absurdness.  But that’s alright. Creators (read poets), after all, are (for good or ill) gods and goddesses by virtue of their productions, and they make sense by rearranging the raw material of chaos. For more of my review go here:  http://dougholder.blogspot.com/2023/07/its-not-love-till-someone-loses-eye-by.html

Review of the Pearl Diver of Irunmani

Slicing through the surface of airless consciousness toward unfathomable truths can excite the artistic imagination into a rather unique understanding of being and self. Marc Vincenz in his new book, The Pearl Diver of Irunmani, concocts distinctive and curious metaphors from these rarely explored oceanic depths with their hitherto undetected, and sometimes priceless, gems.

 Many of Vincenz’s poems are disguised narrative pieces seemingly connected with a dreamlike, almost metaphysical logic. His sparse, but poignant, imagery belies the substantial emotions and mnemonic thought subsumed within. For more of my review go here: http://dougholder.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-pearl-diver-of-irunmani-by-marc.html

My Poem, Lilith Appears at the All-Souls Lounge, Published

My poem, Lilith Appears at the  All-Souls Lounge, has just been published by the Lily Poetry Review (Issue 9, Winter 2023). I am honored. Thank you to Editor-in-Chief Eileen Cleary and her staff. Many other excellent poems are within.

  

Review of the Ruined Millionaire by Ben Mazer

Internalized reality and memory need inspired, mindful editing to reach their fated shape of first-rate poetry. Ben Mazer showcases his skills as the genre’s perfect (or, at least, near-perfect) editor in his new book, The Ruined Millionaire. Somehow, in the evident density of Mazer’s work, his mirrored image metaphorically seems to appear distributing versified handbills that alert his already captured audience to the celebration of self-consciousness unquestionably underway. Oxidized word-bronzes and broken shards of stained-glass history are reinvigorated by this poet into contemporary, albeit runic, measures. Here the mind’s suzerainty is never in doubt. And Mazer is nothing if not the self-conscious observer of his own cognizant creations. For more of my review go here: http://dougholder.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-ruined-millionaire-by-ben-mazer_3.html

  

Ed Meek reviews my new book, Psalms Composed in Utter Darkness

Here is the link to Ed Meek's Review  http://dougholder.blogspot.com/2023/03/psalms-composed-in-utter-darkness-by.html

Psalms Composed in Utter Darkness Published

 

My latest book, Psalms Composed in Utter Darkness, has just been published and is available at the publisher's site. Here is the link: https://www.dosmadres.com/shop/psalms-composed-in-utter-darkness-by-dennis-daly/

This book is also available at the Grolier Poetry Book Shop, 6 Plympton St., Cambridge, MA.

Covers of My Forthcoming Book

 

   

Here is the front cover of my soon-to-be- released book, Psalms Composed in Utter Darkness. Thank you to Dos Madres editor Robert Murphy and Elizabeth Murphy for her marvelous design.          

This is the back cover of my forthcoming book from Dos Madres, Psalms Composed in Utter Darkness. Special thanks to Denise Provost, who wrote this generous and upbeat blurb, and also contributed savvy advice on the text.