My poem "Whitewalls" is published in the Rear View Mirror Edition of Right Hand Pointing

The Maurice J. Tobin Memorial Bridge is a cantilever truss bridge that spans more than two miles from Boston to Chelsea over the Mystic River in Massachusetts. The bridge, also known as the Mystic River Bridge, is the largest in New England.

According to my calculations, at 135 feet tall it takes an object about 2.5 seconds to reach the water. I once threw my wedding ring off the Tobin, but that was a long time ago. If I were to commit a crime and needed to ditch a handgun, I think tossing it from this bridge would be a pretty good idea.  

My poem "Whitewalls"  is about just that. 

It appears in issue, #116, of Right Hang Pointing and like a gun sunk in the Mystic River you have to look around a bit after opening the issue's link. Too tough for those with ADD? Then just follow the right hand pointing. 

Thanks to Laura M. Kaminski for her suggestions.




Also find some great work from Jim Bourey, Wes Civilz, Chet Corey, Howie Good, M.J. Iuppa, Ravitte Kentwortz, Jesse Miksic, Maximilian Lloyd, Alexander Nachaj, Thomas O'Connell, Belinda Rimmer, Sanjeev Sethi, Don Thompson, Sugar Tobey, Guy Traiber

I appear on The Koncast Podcast, which is better than the Comcast anything

When I was invited onto Jon's podcast, Koncast, not to be confused with the cable thieves, Comcast, we ended up having a very interesting chat.  So click that link and listen!


Author Jon Konrath is a very interesting guy and a very good interviewer. Our writing careers have shadowed each other's for years---same time, same places, same issues in a literary sense. Recently he has been doing this Andy Kaufman-ish The Same Picture of Jon Konrath Everyday.   I love how it's catching on, and I've never created irony which created jewelry and coffee cups. Anyway, the podcast is a damn good chat.

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Some subjects we covered

-Writing

-My start in poetry

-How on-line journals mirror Tinder

-Joe Blow who is my Joe Blow friend on Facebook

-Literary events where you pay $300 host a reading for yourself ="Welcome to Me"



-How on-line readings mirror the death of music on MTV

-Norm MacDonald has a Roku show and he's on coke (you only have to watch the opening)

-The Original RCA E-book reader

-Ways MFA programs validate cost of tuition

-Netflix doing the opposite of Napster

-The Pendulum swings against the privileged

-Creative Non-fiction and how if your father is dating a sheep he's going to sue you
-The death of journalism

New interview: "Rookie Sensation from Out of Nowhere" generously interviews me in Paradox Review

Who is Aneka Brunssen?

ANEKA BRUNSSEN is a writer, poet and graduate student from Bremen, Germany, with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Cultural Studies. Aneka has written several non-fiction essays, in both German and English, as well as a few short stories, articles, reviews and poetry collections. Her personal blog SELFISH SIMILE is a collection of several non-fiction articles and essays covering a vast range of subjects while her poetry blog  SPACE TRASH POETRY is dedicated to her poetry.

Here's the real answer. I had no idea who Aneka was until about a week ago. After we became social media friends, I found out she works really hard promoting the art and writing of others. I always say, if you want your work read, promote others also and here I was very impressed by Aneka. Two days ago she queried artists, poets, writers for interviews and quickly and graciously I was granted one HERE in The Paradox Review, a new and cool little joint she runs with Matthew Wagner..

That's how you make a splash. Thank you Aneka and Matt

 

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Here's the re-print
Please tell us a little bit about your most recent work.

My thirteenth book is my first book of poetry since 2013 and is broken into Eight Acts, with the first being about the history of privilege by the United States in regards to doing whatever the hell it wants, all the way back in time and all the way up to our current President.

What was your motivation for writing it?

I wanted to make a point--to do so in poetry instead of the frequent rantings and ravings people find and do on social media.

Are you currently working on any side projects?

I'm working with Paul Ahern on a screenplay for my novel "The Thursday Appointments of Bill Sloan" and I'm also celebrating 2ooth month anniversary of my literary series. Side projects? Are there ever such things?

What motivated you to become a writer?

I just wanted to write whatever I wanted. I hate being told what to do, say or write.

Do you have any unique writing rituals?

Not really. I used to, but now it's more writing when I have the time to write and attempt to do it daily.

Do you feel close to your characters? If yes, how so?

When The Thursday Appointments of Bill Sloan's first draft was finished I actually missed the characters. That surprised me. It was almost as if people I spoke to daily moved away. When I wrote Grand Slams: A Coming of Eggs Story, the characters were strongly based on the people I knew at the time; the restaurant actually existed. Saying goodbye to them was different and easier than the Bill Sloan characters.

Do you find it difficult to maintain a career as a writer?

I find it difficult to have a career as a writer period. If I relied on this to make a living---good luck. I have another job which pays the bills.

Tell us about your day job.

It's a state job working with disabled individuals. I've been at that longer than I've been a published author.

When it comes to poetry, where do you find your inspiration? 

Through sights, sounds and feelings. I was never a political poet as I find it kind of boring, but when I forced myself to produce poems this winter and early spring,  what came out of me was based on what was going on. I had strong feelings about that--the inequality, the power structure and just the overall wrong doings; especially how things were being portrayed to trick and fool people.

What would you like to tell your readers?
​
Read. Write. Purchase. Don't just "like"--We don't need the that-a-boy/girl. To my readers--Thank you for reading. I love and appreciate that.

Five Poems in the Fall 2017 Issue of Muddy Water Poetry Review

Brookline was known as the hamlet of Muddy River (a river which today makes up part of the Brookline-Boston border) and was considered a part of Boston until the Town of Brookline was independently incorporated in 1705. Its name is derived from the brooks that created the town lines with the former towns of Brighton and Roxbury, which are both now parts of Boston.





Poet Zvi Sesling is the poet laureate of Brookline, Ma and editor of the Muddy River Poetry Review. See how it all connects? Anyway, he asked me to be one of the features for their Fall Issue and included are five of my poems

Day One: The Day After  
(the dope is that it's about a relapse)

Red Barn
(the dope is that it's about the dope we call President) 

Bringing a Monkey to Work
(the dope is that it's about employment in general, and bringing your "pets" to work)

The Truth About Pastels
(the dope is that it's about the color of people's skin)

Still there Are Boxes
(the dope is that it's about a lover moving out)





Also in this issue are

Barbara Helfgott Hyett -- Feature

Timothy Gager -- Feature

Wendy Drexler -- Feature

Eileen Tabios

Steve Klepetar

Literary Estate of Mike Amado

Ann Howells

Doug Holder

Chris Warner

Renuka Raghavan

Nina R. Alonso

Julia Carlson

Ed Ferri

Anne Elezabeth Pluto

Gary Metras

Ellen Steinbaum

Michael Ansara

Neil Silberblatt

Deborah Leipziger

Dennis Daly

D.R. James

Charlotte Hamrick

Robin Stratton

Rusty Barnes

Rona Laban

Ed Meek

Karen Neuberg

John Grey

Ace Boggess

Gloria Mindock

Mike McInnis

Elizabeth McKim

Carol Tashjian

David P. Miller

Deidre Fagan

Louisa Clerici

James B. Nicola

Charles Cantrell

Linda Fischer

Sam Lauer

Susan Tepper

Susan Dilisio

Tom Miller

Peter Krok

Jim Zola

Judy Katz-Levine

Michael T. Young

Mike Welch

Robbi Nestor

Robin Wright

Jonathan Corle

Daryl Muranaka

Bill Abbott

Ken Meisel

Elizabeth Ehrlich

Georgette Unis

Elizabeth Hanson

Joel Moskowitz

M. Stone

M. J. Iuppa

Keith Tornheim

Daniel A. Sterne

Alan Walowitz

Claire Scott

Yoni Hammer-Kossoy

Hello, Snowflakes

Darrell Laurant is a person who likes to feature indy authors from the herd and make them stand out. Today he featured my book Grand Slams, on his site, Snowflakes in a Blizzard. It sort of offers a one stop shopping for the promotion of the book. There are comments from me, reviews, the backstory, where to purchase and bits and pieces from interviews I'd previously given. Laurant is there to help and asks nothing in return---not your usual generosity in today's day and age.

Yes the word snowflake now has a loaded meaning, often used as a negative word for liberals, which in itself has become a negative word. How the hell did that happen? Of course the blizzard that took place during The Shining shows that snowflakes have a whole lot of power behind themSnowflake (n) noun: the young adults of the 2010s, viewed as being less resilient and more prone to taking offense than previous generations

 So anyway, I'm not going all political on you. If you want to see or read that, there is always Twitter where you can follow me @timothygager , where I can still tweet all my love directly to @realdonaldtrump

Now it can be posted: My TV inteview with Doug Holder. If you heard it, see it!

Thanks to Doug Holder, the honorary, Charlie Rose , I mean,  Jimmy Fallon of The Paris of New England--plus a fine fellow and a really great poet. After this I'm sure you'd like to pick up a copy of "Chief Jay Strongbow is Real"

Interview first--on writing, politics, the national anthem controversy.

The readings from "Chief Jay Strongbow is Real" start at the 20:00 minute mark.

AT 21:00 the poem, "Methinks We Protest" (a found poem quoted from Hanna Arendt, Malcolm X, Stalin and Shakespear.

AT  22:20 "Throw Certainty Out in the Air like a Lasso" for Alton Sterling

AT 23:45 "Chief Jay Strongbow is Real"

AT 26:02, "Sobriety"

AT 26:45 "When We Talk About Love"

It's amazing we remembered what we said on the podcast...EXACTLY.