Jonathan
Roses Leads off
Newton
Free Library Poetry Series Sept. 10
By Susie
Davidson
Advocate
Correspondent
NEWTON -
The Newton Free Library Poetry Series will debut with new host Doug Holder this
coming Tuesday evening, Sept. 10 at 7 p.m., with Jonathan Roses, Joanna Nealon
and Andrew Jantz. The series, recently turned over to the capable leadership of
the local poetry organizer, Past President of Stone Soup Poetry and Ibbetson
St. Press founder Holder (whose credits include Marc Widershein’s “The
Life of All Worlds”, about growing up in 1940’s Jewish Dorchester),
will feature three dates of great spoken word this fall.
Holder assumed leadership from series founder and longstanding host Robert K. Johnson, a Professor of English at Suffolk University, on April 9 at the Library’s annual poetry festival.
Roses, who
holds a Ph.D. in English from U.Mass. Amherst, grew up in Greenwich Village in
the 50’s. Jantz has published two books of poetry with a third pending;
he received the Best Foreign Translation Award from the New England Poetry Club
and the Poet of the Month Award from the Christian Science Monitor. Nealon, a
former Fulbright Scholar with a B.A. in French literature, is a blind woman who
has published four poetry volumes.
“A
couple of years ago,” recalls Roses, a Newton Highlands resident,
“my wife Lorraine, who is a Professor of Latin American Studies at
Wellesley College, suggested I sit in on the poetry writing course Doug Holder
was giving at Newton North High School. I had just written my first poem in
thirty-five years, ‘Father, Flotante’ (Flotante means
‘floating’ in French and Spanish). Doug asked if he could publish
it. I was surprised and flattered, and ended up taking Doug's next two
workshops.”
Roses
taught English for ten years at Lasell, B.U. and Babson, then became a
technical writer at Data General (now owned by EMC).
“After twenty-one plus years as
technical writer and Documentation Department Manager,” he says, “I
decided post-September 11 to retire early and spend my time reading and
writing, mostly poetry. Together, my wife and I published perhaps half a dozen
poems each in Ibbetson Street Press, the homeless community publication Small
Change, and others.”
Roses will
read from his chapbook “Small World” on Sept. 10. “It covers
a variety of topics - memory, childhood (mine and those of my sons), travel in
Mexico and Copenhagen, and the kinds of perceptions that are personal and
deeply held. For example, there are echoes of both Judaism and spirituality in
several of the poems. In one (‘Passing Thoughts’), I reflect on
both 9/11 and the Jewish cemetery where my wife's parents are buried, and where
we, too, will be.”
“In
another (‘Gooseberry Beach’), I write about last Rosh Hashanah,
about sweetness and, following the horror of September, pain. I find
spirituality in other, not particularly Jewish places - the bells from the
church on the block in New York where I grew up ('Walking Up Tenth Street'), or
the Cathedral in Oaxaca, Mexico ('Solstice'), where my wife and I often go.
“We
see ourselves as sometimes observant, secular Jews. Our children run the gamut
from more traditional to non-practicing. If you are Jewish, there is always
that strong connection with the Jewish people and the tradition.”
On October
8, Judith Steinbergh will be featured along with Elizabeth McKim and Lainie
Senechal. On Nov. 12, Jon Shea, Joe Torra and Deborah Priestly will read, and
the series will pick up again in the spring.