Greenland anchors one end of the fabled and increasingly accessible Northwest Passage connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Alaska anchors the other end. The route passes through the Davis Strait and Baffin Bay. A scattering of Inuits inhabit the surrounding shores and Canada thusly claims the passage as internal waters. The United States, on the contrary, considers it an international strait and a futuristic necessity for economic and seasonal trading purposes. Having defensively occupied Greenland during World War II, after Denmark capitulated to the Nazis, the United States considers Greenland a key factor in American and NATO security. In 1951 President Harry Truman attempted to purchase Greenland from Denmark, but failed.

 Before there was a United States or a Panama Canal European explorers and visionaries sought a trade route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Associated with names such as Henry Hudson,  John Cabot, and Roald Amundsen, the Northwest Passage became the Holy Grail of American colonization. This seemingly mythological waterway (originally foreseen as more southerly, using the Great Lakes) inspired the first continental superhero, Robert Rogers, to risk his life and hard-earned fortune and probably his sanity in search of this dream of discovery with its embedded  idea of America and its Manifest Destiny.

 Attaining his fame during the so-called French and Indian War and Pontiac’s Rebellion, Rogers turned away from his Indian fighter reputation and advocated for fairer treatment of and honest trading practices with the indigenous North American tribes.

 Kenneth Roberts wrote an inciteful book of historic fiction on Roger's life, Northwest Passage, in 1937. For those so inclined, my slim chapbook, Alcaics for Major Robert Rogers, published by Wilderness House Press, deals with Rogers on a poetic level. 

Poetry usually works best when the poet objectifies the personal on a mindful scale between self-evaluation and mythic individuality. Nina Rubinstein Alonzo does exactly that in her latest collection The Ones I Could Tell Anything, subtitled Mists of Self.

 Styled mostly in crisp, neatly packed pods sans punctuation, Alonzo’s confessional pieces in Part I intimate external human connections beyond pedestrian attention and in Part II, using inspired depictions, her very different, surreal pieces often wax mythical with internal and latent symbolism. These same images rub up against each other wonderfully, fusing dry narratives with her seemingly subconscious visions. For more of my review of The Ones I Could Tell Anything go here: https://dougholder.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-ones-i-could-tell-anything-mists-of.html

 Scurrying along the base of the looming, chemically-stained building, through the parking lot, under the steam pipe, down the twisted steps and into a forbidding white-washed brick, claustrophobia-inducing passageway, the door wedged open with a boulder, I arrived at the Factory Theater.  And then it got better, much better.

 I will be reading at the Walnut Street Coffee Cafe on September 3, 2025, The cafe is located at 157 Walnut Street, Lynn Massachusetts. One Feature. Open mic: 7:30-8:30 pm. Feature: 8:30-9:00 pm.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/343103045884069/   

 Five of my poems, Hiraeth, A Berserker's Meditation, Being, Interim Ethic, and Grammarian's Nightmare have just been published by Synchronized Chaos. Thank you to the editor, Cristina Deptula. Here is the link: https://synchchaos.com/poetry-from-dennis-daly/

 The Shredder—A Memory

 Given the first two alternatives, a room in the Mustapha Hotel almost made sense. The room I had booked at the Intercontinental had been hit by a missile. The second room or, rather, compound, formerly occupied by Osama Bin Laden, turned out to be an inside joke hatched up between my translator and my driver.

 Frequented by serious journalists, UN staffers, NGO employees, and clandestine types, the Mustapha seemed perfect. Among its assets was a rooftop dining area overlooking the city and an illegal bar serving cold German beer on tap. We were assured that the Taliban, government officials, and some religious leaders were sufficiently bribed. The liabilities included no continuous security and the institution’s questionable walls.

 Understanding the need for office space to accommodate the influx of Westerners, the owners had installed floor to ceiling glass partitions. Later, when priorities changed, the partitions were painted over and converted into hotel room walls. What could possibly go wrong?

 Days after I had checked in, the hotel management braced itself after being threatened by a would-be suicide bomber. Armored vehicles patrolled outside. Black humor proliferated. If an explosion happened, the physics suggested the shredding of all unsuspecting (and some suspecting) guests within these glass-walled rooms.

 As soon as practicable, we left, driving north into the relative safety of the towering and now less forbidding Hindu Kush mountains.

 Doug Holder doesn’t beat around the bush. His poetry grabs you with its pent-up gusto and bohemian worldview. Maddening at times. Falling-down funny. Sad, beyond troubling. Ravenous. A direct poetic descendent of Ginsberg, Corso, and Huncke, this poet today stands alone in his alternate universe with his off-kilter, gritty observations. In his new collection, I Aint Gonna Wait For Godot No More, Holder wanders over the creaking floorboards of his poetic offerings confronting existential questions and supplying make-do answers. Mortality and meaning lurk between his insistent lines. For more of my review of I Ain't Gonna Wait For Godot No More go here: https://dougholder.blogspot.com/2025/07/i-aint-gonna-wait-for-godot-no-more.html

I will be reading poetry at the Phinista Cafe on July 17th at 7 PM. with four other fine poets: Doug Holder, Gloria Mindock, Peter Brown, and Philip Nikolayev. The readings will be followed by an open mic. The Phinista Cafe is located at 186 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02140.

 My review of M.P. Carver's Hard Up has been published in the Summer Issue of Wilderness House Literary Review. Here is the link: https://www.whlreview.com/no-20.2/review/DennisDaly.pdf 

Eleven of my Metaphysical Commentaries (a sequence of 154 quatrains) have been published by Wilderness House Literary Review. Thank you to Ravi Yelamanchilli, the Poetry Editor, and Steve Glines, the publisher, novelist, poet, and book designer extraordinaire. Here is the link: https://www.whlreview.com/no-20.2/poetry/DennisDaly.pdf

Somehow I missed this. It was published earlier in the year. Carousel is part of my 154 poem sequence entitled Metaphysical Commentaries. Thank you to the Asses of Parnassus and its terrific editor Brooke Clark.  Here is the link: https://www.tumblr.com/assesofparnassus/774754232614240256/carousel?source=share

 The poetry reading for tonight at the Phinista Cafe has been cancelled. The A/C broke. Rescheduled for July 17th at 7 PM.

Calliope rules the world of heroic poetry. Even collections of short heroic poetry motivated by injustice. Whatever the intent of the poet, this muse waits for her opportunity to intervene, to alter, to charm. When reading M.P. Carver’s latest chapbook, Hard Up, one delights in the counterpoint between musical expression and poetical grievance. Carver’s (and her muse’s) ability to transcend down-and-out situations with humor and the necessary concomitant irony inspires. It inspires so much that the political point of her art becomes secondary to her admirable persona and descriptive magic. For more of my review of Hard Up go here:  https://dougholder.blogspot.com/2025/06/hard-up-by-mp-carver.html

 I will be reading my poetry on June 19, 2025, 7PM to 9 PM at the Phinista Cafe at 1876 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA. with three other excellent poets-- Gloria Mindock, Doug Holder, and Philip Nikolayev. Following the reading there will be an open mic. Rescheduled for July 17th.

 Thank you to Amethyst Review and its wonderful editor, Sarah Law, for publishing Transubstantiation. Here is the link: https://amethystmagazine.org/2025/05/12/transubstantiation-a-poem-by-dennis-daly/ 

 Thank you to editors M.P. Carver and Kevin Carey for publishing my poem (quatrain) Aftermath in Molecule, a tiny, but wondrous, little mag. Here is the link for Issue 12. https://moleculetinylitmag.art.blog  The piece is on page 37. 

 Use of the third person plural in poetry not only draws the writer away from the overly fashionable confessional style of versifying but adds a sense of universality and transcendence to the word-craft. The ability to connect the emotions and thoughts of a multitude suggests either deep arrogance (in bad poetry) or collective insight and consciousness (in good poetry). There are obvious pitfalls. For instance, “we” could simply be used as a metaphor for “I.” Or the writer may project his revelations onto others without any real sapience. Eric Greinke’s masterfully edited anthology entitled Speaking For Everyone avoids the pitfalls of this genre and, in his inspired choices of good poetry, bonds together the fears and hopes and commonalities inherent in the nature of mankind. For more of my review of Speaking for Everyone go here:  https://dougholder.blogspot.com/2025/02/speaking-for-everyone-anthology-of-we.html

On Tuesday, February 11th Marcus Breen, a professor of communications at Boston College, interviewed me on his local TV show Boston Media Theory (NewTV in Newton MA). At the end of the discussion I read a couple of my union poems: The Electrician and Rat-Friend. Here is the YouTube link:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJPNg0WcYw8&t=208s&pp=ygUbZGVubmlzIGRhbHkgdW5pb24gaW50ZXJ2aWV3

 My poem, Lines Written for Thomas Merton, was just published in Lyrical Somerville. Thank you to Doug Holder, the editor. Here is the link: https://www.thesomervilletimes.com/archives/138428

 Here is the link for the Grolier Poetry Book Shop Poetry Reading Held on October 2, 2024. Tom Daley hosted. I am the third and final reader (two thirds into the YouTube program):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yFeycJGsdA

Spanning oceans and multiple generations, Homage, Kathleen Spivack’s newest collection of poems, delivers a movable feast of poets and other influencers of her estimable artistry. Spivack’s narratives celebrate famous poets, musicians, painters, and booksellers, many of whom she personally knew and some before her time, as well as teachers, a lighthouse keeper, and other oddly interesting individuals.

 Each of these poems seem perfectly weighted, upbeat, and toned with appreciation and even affection. Not an easy task given the ever-present and dark backstories of some of these fraught individuals. For more of my review of Homage go here:  https://dougholder.blogspot.com/2024/12/homage-by-kathleen-spivack.html

 Spectral power belongs to ages and cultures long past. But here and there evidence emerges of its elusive endurance in the form of poetic techniques such as projection and personalization. Here imagination (Cotton Mather aficionados take notice) provides the proper venue with insight, empathy, and understanding as value added attachments. In his new book of poetry, The Biographer, David M. Katz haunts his set of chosen characters with his mnemonic underpaintings. He merges his rich emotional values with the objective facts of his characters, real or fictional. For more of my review go here: https://dougholder.blogspot.com/2024/10/the-biographer-poems-by-david-m-katz.html

Thank You Grolier Poetry Book Shop for inviting me to read on October 2nd with two other excellent poets: Ann Taylor and Dianne Silvestri. Also thank you to Tom Daley for hosting and the full house crowd for being a full house crowd.