When I die You shall set me free For I would like to be clover. Deep-rooted clover with a few lucky leaves And small white flowers That pop up overnight […]
Books & Poetry
POETRY
A Stranding
Before Dürer, dragons existed; after him, they did not. —Philip Hoare Two mola mola washed ashore last night during a full […]
POETRY
Cape Strata
How many people pass this place … every day and never see it! Once it is seen, painted, and put into a frame everyone will come to look at it. […]
BOOKS
Nick Flynn Searches for Lost Time
In Low, penetrating lyrics explore avenues of collaboration
Nick Flynn’s Low, his sixth volume of poems, is perfectly tuned to winter’s meditative months. Published in November by Graywolf Press, the collection consists of poems of varying lengths that […]
REMINISCENCE
Seeing Past the New Sidewalk
Our Writers Group recreates the old Provincetown every Tuesday
PROVINCETOWN — Dogs named Riches and Poverty. Ice houses. The time the harbor almost froze over. Kids sliding at night in midwinter. Dune skiing with cheap skis. Fires on the […]
POETRY
Muscle Memory
Neil Silberblatt lives in Dennis Port and is the founder and director of Voices of Poetry. His most recent collection, Past Imperfect, was nominated for the Mass. Book Award in […]
POETRY
The Lost Dunes
A cardiologist bought a house perched atop a dune precariously located — he paid cash. A few years later the house toppled in a storm. The cottage colony on Ocean Drive […]
BOOKS
In Day, Michael Cunningham Tells a Family Drama in Three Parts
The novel, set in part during the pandemic, never names the pandemic
The rule of thirds is a compositional principle in photography: an image is divided into three equal parts to achieve maximum aesthetic tension. For the writer Michael Cunningham, the rule […]
POETRY
For My Girlfriend Sleeping In
The earliest sunrises of the year come in mid-June. Right before Father’s Day, right before schools let out, and turn the quiet Cape upside down with tourists. On these early […]
IN TRUTH
Linda Coombs Wants Young Readers to Know the Past
The Wampanoag author’s new children’s book aims to bust myths about colonization
“Some people think we all disappeared,” says Linda Coombs, a member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah who for nearly 50 years has been a historian and museum curator specializing […]
POETRY
Barn Swallow Math
A mini murmur of more than fifty zig zags above. Pulsing, pendulously swinging as wide as their instincts allowed. Bombardier wings and double knife-point tails. Black silhouettes against the pink […]
POETRY
George Washington Frees the Slaves
Michael Ansara is cofounder of Mass Poetry. His most recent book of poems is What Remains, published in 2022 by Kelsay Books. Submit poems to [email protected]. Include your full name, […]
BATTLEGROUND
Britney Spears’s Search for Decency
The pop singer’s memoir is a graceful retelling of traumatic truths
People have always felt free to say whatever they want about Britney Spears’s personal life. This was true at the beginning of her career when she was in her teens […]
POETRY
Two Poems and an Invitation
Strange creatures and other miracles of summer
Summers By Robert Kuttner I’ve often wondered How the summer of ’39 felt People savoring ordinary joys The dread of doom just over the hill Or the summer of 1914 […]
BOOKS
‘Our Strangers’ Offers Big Provocations in Bite-Size Stories
Lydia Davis finds wit in the senselessness of 21st-century life
In the story “Caramel Drizzle,” Lydia Davis begins with a simple but disorienting question, rendered in quotation marks and without attribution: “Caramel syrup or caramel drizzle?” How are those choices, […]
