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.