Gager, the cofounder of the Somerville News Writers Festival, and the author of a number of poetry and fiction titles, has a new poetry collection released " These Poems Are Not Pink Clouds." Gager's poetry has a signature mixture of humor, irony, and angst, tinged with a healthy dose of Bukowski-like fatalism. In his poem "Harvard Square" Gager pays homage to the bohemian square of the past, as opposed to the less romantic realities of the present day. Here Gager uses a peasant dress an old girlfriend wears to evoke a time and a place when his world was not jaded and fresh:

" but when

I was sixteen

the used clothing store

existed right there

and a beaded dress

made you more

beautiful than

a haunted gypsy,

made me kiss you

when you exited

the changing room

deciding whether

I should either

live or die forever"

In B.Z. Niditch's "Portraits" Niditch presents a series of short poems that capture, with an economy of words, a wide variety of writers and artists. "Bukowski" reveals the down-at-the-heels, gone-to-seed; milieu the writer Charles Bukowski thrived and wrote in:

" Wild wordsmith

in your great spaces

of L.A horror's beauty

will always come back

in a drinking mirror…

effacing barracks of chaos-

along peppered rail yards

tearing up your

daybreak flesh."

Both books are mini-digest sized, with compelling front cover artwork. These titles are welcome additions and editions to the growing Alternating Current list of publications.

To order these and other books go to:

http://alt-current.com

Alternating Current

PO BOX 398058

Cambridge, Ma.

02139

The poems in this book deal with his journey and his attempts to take control of his health.

.

In spite of Mike's illness he regularly attends the Bagel Bards in Davis Square, publishes his work, and hosts his own reading series in Plymouth, Mass. I decided to use a couple of his poems from his new collection. To have your work considered for the Lyrical send it to: Doug Holder 25 School St. Somerville, Mass. 02143 dougholder@post.harvard.edu

Just Waiting

Waiting for the Doctor

Waiting for the pills

Waiting for the scalpel

Waiting to heal

Waiting for treatment to begin

Waiting for treatment to end

Waiting to feel better

Waiting to feel worse

Waiting for an organ

Waiting for the worst

Waiting for an ambulance

Waiting for the hearse.

"… The First Emanation Is Light…"

* Paraphrase of Paul Foster Case

Dialysis machine

pulses soft light

on walls of my bedroom,

drives fluid into my abdomen.

Pain grips my body python-like.

I wonder:

Are deities in the machine?

If so, when the day comes

we all need pacemakers

Will heart then be

divine? Maybe

people are machines who

need machines. But cells

are micro-Gods.

They thwart the darkness,

this harvest season

that promises burial.

Cells secretly reinvent light.

–Mike Amado.