Creative

Halloween 2013 was a spooky one. It was raining and very, very dark on Cedar Street. The power went out just before 6 p.m. leaving every house without light.

And out of the darkness they came. First small and alone, then in increasing numbers. By our count, 196 goblins came out of the darkness in search of treats.

Here is the official 2013 Halloween costume list. Forgive us for any errors.

Tiny Batman
Thing 1
Thing 2
The Cat in the Hat

Hi Brattleboro writers! I want to thank those of you who have participated in Montpelier’s PoemCity (aka POETRY Alive!) event these past four years AND to invite you and your friends to do so once again. The submissions window is currently open until the end of the year. This is a little earlier, so we can have enough time to read your work. 

So, basically same rules as last year. If you forget, you can visit our blog here: . We’ll continue to update as we are planning the 2014 event. 

I look forward to reading your work, and seeing a few of you as you visit us in April for the full program. Thanks. -p

I had seen a 10 minute play which starts with a character complaining that when he tried to purchase a bottle of aspirin at a drug store, the clerk told him: “We don’t have that.”

It reminded me of a strange experience I had on Staten Island more than 30 years ago.

We were in Stapleton, a few miles from our home in St. George. It looked like an ordinary luncheonette — big CocaCola sign — soda fountain counter with a row of round stools that you can spin on, and booths along the wall.

The place was empty, but it was not lunch hour. Carol and I sat down with Grace and Eve at one of the booths.

The sound of chainsaws

Breaks silence of the Tree Streets.

What is in a name?

As part of the Brattleboro Literary Festival, Write Action and the “University of Brattleboro” will be sponsoring the T. P. James “Write Like The Dickens” writing contest.

Contestants will have time between 11 and 12 PM to hand write the next intallment of “The Life and Adventures of Bockley Wickleheap”. This was the second novel that T. P. James claimed was being dictated to him by the ghost of Charles Dickens, back in the 1870’s, right here in Brattleboro.

Blow back for an Empire

drones swoop over Pakistan

incessant buzzing death

faceless killers buzzing death

American killer buzzing death

incessant buzzing death

By: rosemarie jackowski

On Labor Day we celebrate those who work — as opposed to those who inherit family wealth and those whose financial investments work so they don’t have to. Many workers who deserve to be honored on this special day have come from across the border. In a global economy, workers who strive for justice in their own country must, by necessity, unite with workers around the world.

It seemed not so long ago a terrarium was a common sight in a home. Also fish tanks, turtle boxes, even freeze-dried sea-horses that you sent away for were trafficked more heavily in the pre-computer age. Little patches of life, microcosms and personal plots and spaces. Handheld domains sustained by the attention we brought to them.

We now cultivate social globes. We tend our Digitariums populated by “friends and followers”, and fed by our crafted personas. We spend swaths of time in prescribed webspheres made of input boxes, upload buttons, and php scripts. These are technically vivariums too, miniature worlds, but the contents of the bowl are linguistic and iconic rather than purely organic.

Date & Time: Tuesday Jul 23 2013 – 10:00am – 12:00pm & 1:00pm – 3:00pm

Come create homes for our magical friends during our Fairy Houses & Gnome Homes workshop on Tuesday July 23 at Brooks Memorial Library. 

Choose from two sessions: 

Session 1 runs from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. 
Session 2 runs from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. 

I was reading about a new in Wisconsin.  Here are a few of the 20 questions being asked of those that apply:

– Describe an object lost that you still think about.

BASED ON TRUE EVENTS

I have been teaching Geometry this year, 

and trying my best to explain logic,

deduction vs induction,

and the ever present,

always faulty,

always useful, abductive “reasoning.”

“Wind
Howling Through the Streets “

A Chilean woman spoke to me

late into the night in Valparaiso
about

living during the time of Pinochet.

Here’s something that the town of Brattlboro does not “need”: a town slogan. But, it might be fun to try.

Capsule descriptions of Brattleboro in advertising tend to focus on our great downtown, natural beauty and the generalartsieness of the place.

I was thinking of going in a different direction:

“Brattleboro, Vt – in the shadow of the foothills of the Green Mountains!” 

I was no longer homeless, and I had a job. Compared with day labor pushing carts through the garment district, driving a cab seemed easy… and by my standards it paid well.

This evening I had started with two quick fares, each less than five dollars on the meter. Tonight, the weather was pleasant, but having left off my passengers in Little Italy, I now found myself stuck in a single-lane jam on a narrow street. There was another empty cab behind me, so if anyone were to hail a taxi, I would be first in line for the fare. Or so I thought.