The Man in the
Booth in the Midtown Tunnel
* As a kid I always
wondered about the man in the small booth in the middle of the
Midtown Tunnel; the tunnel in NYC that goes from the borough of
Queens to Manhattan.
The cars stream
under a frozen
catatonic
East River.
And the man
in the booth
paces the perimeter
of his cage.
He fumes
with the fumes.
And feels
the river’s pressure
above his head.
And he has
lost his face,
long ago
in a blue uniform.
And the sun
and the fresh air,
merely a hint.
And we are
faceless and a blur,
behind thick plates
of light-bleached glass.
And we will
all remain
ignorant of
each other.
And there is
no light
at the
end of
the Midtown
Tunnel.
Lost Girl on
the Psychiatric Ward
Standing
in the middle of the ward
A thin scrim of sweat
Glistens on her nascent mustache
Apologizing to the thin air
her hands on her hips–
Disgust for the phantoms.
She is on guard
for the vulpine machinations
of the silent, incessant voices
chattering in her cortex
a murderous Greek Chorus
slapping at the hollows
of her skull.
These poems
and pictures were previously published on
the outlaw poetry network.
Interview:
Poet Marilyn Jurich: A Poet Interested in all Things Bizarre and
Unremunerative
Interview:
Writing the right way at Bunker Hill Community College: Off The
Shelf
About Doug
Holder
Doug Holder teaches
writing at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston and
Endicott College in Beverly, Mass. For 27 years he worked at
McLean Hospital in the Boston area and ran poetry groups for
psychiatric patients. His poetry and prose have appeared in
The Boston Globe, Rattle, Poesy, Main Street Rag, The
Endicott Review, the new renaissance and many
others. His latest collection of poems is Poems from
the Left Bank: Somerville, Mass. ( Alternating
Current Press). He holds
an M.A. in Literature from Harvard University.
Doug Holder was born
in Manhattan, N.Y. on July 5, 1955. A small press activist,
he founded the Ibbetson Street Press in the winter of
1998 in Somerville, Mass. He has published over 40 books of
poetry of local and national poets and over 20 issues of the
literary journal Ibbetson Street. Doug Holder
is the arts/editor for The Somerville News, a
co-founder of “The Somerville News Writers Festival,”
“Newton Free Library Poetry Series” and is the curator of
the in Newton, Mass. His interviews with contemporary poets
are archived at the Harvard and Buffalo University
libraries, as well as Poet’s House in NYC.
Doug Holder is a Contributing Editor for Sketchbook.
Doug Holder’s own articles
and poetry have appeared in several anthologies including:
Inside the Outside: An Anthology of Avant-Garde
American Poets (Presa Press) Greatest Hits:
twelve years of Compost Magazine (Zephyr Press) and
America’s Favorite Poems edited by Robert
Pinsky. His work has also appeared in such magazines as:
Rattle, Doubletake, Hazmat, The Boston Globe Magazine,
Caesura, Sahara, Linden Lane, Poesy, Small Press Review,
Artword Quarterly, Manifold (U.K.), The Café Review, the new
renaissance and many others. His two most recent
poetry collections are: “Of All The Meals I Had Before…” (
Cervena Barva- 2007)) and “No One Dies at the Au Bon Pain” (
sunyoutside-2007). His collection “THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE OF
THE MIDTOWN TUNNEL” went out in 2008 ( Cervena Barva Press).
“A journal
and publisher of poetry”
Ibbetson Street
publishes the best of the small press. Our press is
nationally distributed. We have received notice in The
Boston Globe, Harvard Review, Small Press Review, PRESA,
and other repsected journals. We have published poetry books
by Robert K. Johnson, Gloria Mindock, Abbott Ikeler, Helen
Bar Lev, Lo Galluccio, Irene Koronas, Molly Lynn Watt,
Patricia Brodie, Linda Larson and many others. Ibbetson
Street has been featured on TV shows on Newton Cable,
Boston Cable, Cambridge Cable, Somerville Community Access
TV, as well as a feature on MIT Radio. Our magazines and
books are carried at a host of independent bookstores in the
area. Ibbetson Street is now listed in the Index of
American Periodical Verse.
