New poem published today, The Stars Who Refuse to Burn Out, after Andrea Gibson on Oddball Magazine

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Grateful that my poem The Stars Who Refuse to Burn Out, after Andrea Gibson is live today, published on Oddball Magazine (a magazine for anyone who isn't anything)

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Andrea Gibson and her wife Megan

Poet Andrea Gibson (they/them) died. I didn't know them, and the poem is not about them. I can’t say that I loved them as much as others who  loved them, for the reasons they loved them, I had no reason to. The reasons being we don't have a lot of shared experiences in life, in poetic style, in gender, in acceptance for who they are etc.—-but I saw them in Nashville in 2020—- a packed house,  close to 350. 

I didn't even know of them at the time, but they were awesome, and brave with their words. . The poems were amazing, and the truth, no matter how vulnerable was inspiring. There’s a movie, called Come See Me in The Good Light you can watch about their life and fucking attitude regarding thier uncurable cancer, filmed after their diagnosis in 2021. 

So I wrote. I didn’t write it as a tribute, but rather an attempt (if at all possible,  impossible) to capture their poetic voice, their vulnerability in how in manifests in my life. Again it's not about Andrea Gibson but, I used some phrases I found on performances, and interviews on YouTube, as well as from their Substack. Read that when you get a chance.

Earlier this week I posted about Tom Tipton. I knew him. Today it is Andrea. I am amazed by them. I will not post about Ozzie Osbourne. Sorry.

"Art is for the People," RIP, Tom Tipton

      

Tom Tipton

Cambridge art icon, and friend Tom Tipton died this week. Here's a video, an outtake from a documentary, filmed in 2005. Come on and take a drive through Cambridge with Tom Tipton. 

Some 24 years ago, the Dire Literary Series had a 3 month run at The Cantab, which for the record was 3 events held. Poet Gary Hicks told me of this little place called The Out of the Blue Art Gallery in Cambridge, so I went down and met Tom Tipton and Debra Priestly. Within 10 minutes they said I could have a Friday Night there, once a month for 50 bucks. Simple, easy, and when it came to art, there was no other way with Tom. Without this, without Tom and Debra, the connections I've made in the writing community which has helped fueled my work and following would look paltry. Because of his generosity, Tom Tipton gets a lot of credit for what my writing career grew to. 

   Tom was a unique, hardworking gem to work with. His dream was to have an art gallery that anyone could access and make art. We developed a relationship, running into each other the nights of the Dire and during weekly meetings for the Gallery every Monday held at The Middle East. 

  Tom never gave up. The gallery moved from Brookline Ave., then to it's most well-known location, Prospect Street. In order to get an idea about what it was like, here's a clip from a Dire event in Tom's gallery in 2008. I'm the guy with hair. 

When the Prospect Street building was sold, Joseph and Nabil from The Middle East helped they move into a huge space, the former Blockbuster Video in Cambridge.  It still held art and now spaces/stores for the artist. It still made art and artists accessible. It still hosted poetry and it became kind of a rock club with live music on the weekends. It hosted electronic, eclectic, experimental, and this 80's sounding thing below by Dead Leaf Echo---it gave bands a venue to play out when they couldn't get into other clubs.  I ended up hosting198 Dire Events at those three OOTB Galleries. 

 After a few years there, in 2017, the rent went up to 10,000 dollars a month, and pretty much live Dire ended. There wasn't a solid reliable place to host it. Then I lost track of Tom and the Gallery, mostly because I didn't vibe with his new partner, but I regret not keeping in touch with Tom. He was a good one. 

Three Poems published by North of Oxford's July issue

  

   The online journal, North of Oxford, has two familiar names heading up their masthead, Diane Sahmes and g emil reutter, have I've known since 2008 when they edited the Fox Chase Review. It was very cool to see them start this new journal and to have three of my poems accepted for their July issue.  

NOTE: When reading on your phone, tilt it horizontal for the proper line breaks. 

Unattributed graphic 

 Here's the story behind the poems

 1) lepidopterans-  I wrote this at an evening at The Walnut Street Cafe in Lynn, a place I love, and a poetry series (Speak Up), I often attend. At their register is a glass display case with their selection of bottled beer. I wrote this poem about that. 

 2) The Storm He Can No Longer Remember: Written in my father's POV, near the end of his life. 

 3) When the Mind Goes First (for my father):  I lost my father in 2022, and although some say one never recovers from that, perhaps it's more like one doesn't wish to forget a loved one.  Reminiscing about my father thinking about his death. 

Wilderness House Literary Review publishes review of Shadows of the Seen

 I got a nice review from WHLR where, for years, I used to be their fiction editor, so the review really is by a friend of the family. 

To Purchase a copy check the many options, if you click this link at the bottom

Wilderness House Literary Review 20/2  

Shadows of the Seen by Timothy Gager 

ISBN 9781965784099 

Pierian Springs Press 

Review by a friend of the family 

Haunting, Riveting, and Relentlessly Honest: A Novel That Holds a Mirror to America 

Shadows of the Seen by Timothy Gager is a provocative and unflinching novel that dives deep into the fractured psyche of modern America, where personal trauma, political ambition, and gun violence collide in shocking and deeply human ways. 

The novel unfolds through a series of interconnected narratives—Candace, a rising Republican star with a carefully hidden past; Peter, her volatile former lover scarred by neglect and rage; Lucky, a man grasping for redemption; and Bobby-Joe, the clean-cut poster boy of conservative America. Gager skillfully explores how their lives twist together against a backdrop of political doublespeak, performative morality, and the devastating reality of gun culture. 

From the very first chapter, Gager’s voice is raw and unapologetic. His descriptions of violence and emotional despair don’t flinch—they cut. In particular, the prologue (“They Do Not Ring Out”) is a masterclass in immediacy and psychological detail, capturing the chaos and dissociation of a mass shooting with terrifying clarity. 

Candace’s journey—from a manipulated teen to a calculating political figure—is particularly compelling. Gager doesn’t paint her as simply hypocritical or villainous; rather, she’s deeply human, caught between ambition and suppressed trauma. Her ascent through political ranks, bolstered by a marriage of convenience and NRA backing, offers biting commentary on how “values” are twisted into strategy. 

The novel isn’t just about gun violence—it’s about what America chooses to see and what it insists on hiding. Gager skewers both ends of the political spectrum with equal precision, but reserves his sharpest critique for a society that treats mass shootings as background noise and politicians as products of marketing rather than moral conviction. 

Despite the heavy themes, Shadows of the Seen is compulsively readable. The pacing is brisk, the dialogue razor-sharp, and the structure—told through shifting points of view—keeps the emotional stakes high. 

If you’re looking for a novel that dares to confront the darkest corners of contemporary American life, this book delivers. It’s not comfortable. It’s not easy. But it’s necessary. Shadows of the Seen should be required reading—an unsettling parable of our times.

Reading some poems from "These New Orbs" on WGBH, Boston

Orb poems. These New Orbs my next book of poetry should be out sometime in the future. Right now it is floating like an orb, appearing like a ghost. 

At 4:20 of this video you will hear the poems These New Orbs and The Shape of Things