The Common Creative Work.

Where the Lowell Winds Blow

Like no other place on Earth

The wind blows strong in Lowell.

In winter,

a blast chill grips the face.

In summer,

a gentle breeze gives a cool relief.

Like the wind,

Life blows strongly.

At times it causes freezing pains,

Other times it alleviates the devastating heat.

The wind is always felt,

But never seen.

No one knows where the wind blows,

Or where it ends up.

But we know,

The feeling of right now.

No one ever knows what the next day holds.

One can only hope for the best.

But we are never alone,

As long as we partake in the journey together.

Like the wind that choreographs the leaves to dance in autumn,

So should we dance to life’s changing rhythm.

And though we know not where life goes

We go where the Lowell winds blow.

What’s in a City?

A city.

Is it the magnificent skyscrapers that reach heavenward?

The high crime rates,

That make insecure women clutch their purses?

The hustling and bustling.

The city that never sleeps and moves round the clock.

The overcrowded streets,

The pedestrians spilling onto the roads.

The smell.

The stench of pollution and the lack of authentic air.

The lungs scream out for oxygen,

As poison seeps through the pores of the body.

At home in Lowell,

If I close my eyes, I can hear the city,

I can hear the ringing of the emergency sirens

every half hour, in every direction.

If I walk outside, I can see the city,

The hustling and bustling of students and workers,

Rushing to get their work done,

Before the day runs out.

If I inhale deeply,

I can smell the city,

The scent of pollution

That lingers in Lowell,

Since the days of the birth of the Industrial Revolution.

If I spread my arms out wide,

I can feel the city,

I experience the wind that blows over the Merrimack river,

If I lift my hands up high,

It’s almost like I can touch the city

I can reach up and beyond,

Just as the city reaches.

What makes a city a city,

Is that there is no concept of time.

It never stands still, and never catches a break.

Time often works harder and faster than we do.

How can we keep up?

In Lowell, the city clock chimes every hour.

Reminding me that time is still working.

The chimes vibrate through the air particles,

Rebuking me for not keeping up with the city.

The Best Show in Lowell

The best show in Lowell is one not to be missed,

Without fail the show goes on every day.

They say the best things in life are free,

The cost is nothing to witness this spectacular event.

The cast is phenomenal because they are all naturally talented,

Their fame exists all around the world,

It is impossible for me to reach and touch them,

Because they are too big and I am too little.

I am not worthy to be compared to them.

The performance can be seen from wherever you are,

The best seat in the house is right near the Merrimack,

With the river as the moving stage,

And the back drop always a mix of a red, yellow, orange tinge.

If you listen carefully, you can hear the sound effects team,

Performing their last symphony before they wind down for the day,

And start up again first thing in the morning.

There’s no business like show business.

It is the star of the show that shines the brightest,

Putting on a performance twice a day with no breaks.

Life is ever changing in these moments,

But you can always count on the star to make its grand entrance in the east wing,

And take its final bow in the west wing.

The river is the stage and the sky the backdrop,

But the star steals this magnificent show every time.

It is nature’s extravagant spectacular and life’s finale,

By far the best show in Lowell,

Is by the banks of the Merrimack.

The setting in all three poems originates in Lowell. My personal experiences as a student and as a resident here in Lowell inspired the theme of each of these three poems. I used the poem Some Proof of Love by Jacquelyn Pope from the The Common Issue No. 9 as the template for my first poem, Where the Lowell Wind Blows. My interpretation of the meaning and the theme of Pope’s poem is that it talks about the continuation of life. Life never stops or waits for you because it continues on without a moment’s pause. Pope goes on to say towards the end of the poem that the beauty of life and of the past is the people that you share life’s journey with. Our loved ones help us to continue on life’s path. I used this interpretation of Pope’s poem to compose my Lowellian reproduction of Some Proof of Love. I really liked how Pope uses the element of leaves to contribute to the theme of the poem. The first thing I noticed when I came to Lowell was that it was a very windy place. I decided to use that observation as the the core motif in my poem. My poem essentially used the wind as a metaphor to signify the unpredictable path of life. Just like the wind, we can always predict where the wind came from and where it is going but we are never certain of the path of the wind. However, despite life’s unpredictability, it is our loved ones around us that help us endure our fickle lives.

My second poem, What’s in a City? was based on the poem The City by Bruce Bond from The Common Issue No. 7. My understanding of the author’s message was that in this world, we become so busy in our day to day lives, that we often miss the little things in life. The storm forces the girl in the poem to stay inside and observe the things of the city that she had never before noticed. In her daily routine, she is always in a rush and misses all the simple things in the city. However, the stormy day causes her to pause and reflect on the city. I really liked the idea of reflection on the city. I decided to write my poem using my observations about the city of Lowell using the five senses. To me personally, the main characteristic of any city is the concept of time. Time always seems to be running out in the city. People are always trying to do so much in so little time.

The third Lowellian poem was a reproduction of the poem The First Last Light in the Sky by Rowan Riccardo Phillips from The Common Issue No. 9. Phillips’ poem is essentially describing a sunset. This poem is filled with lots of imagery and paints a vivid picture in the reader’s head of what a sunset looks like. The author creates a paradox because the last light of the sun during the sunset is also the first light during a sunrise. One part of the poem that I found the most interesting was that the author describes mix feelings of “song and pain” (Phillips, Line 3). He describes the intense emotion as he watches the sun go down. He approaches the description as if this was the first and last time he would see the sunset. The message of the poem as I understood it was that even though nature repeats, it is best observed in the moment. One can really appreciate the beauty of the sunset if viewed as a one-time spectacular event. I also decided to use this theme to describe the sunset in Lowell. I believe that one of the most beautiful places to see the sunset in Lowell is by the Merrimack River. The sun just drops below the river and it is a magnificent sight to see everyday. I decided to take a different approach to describe the sunset. I used a theatrical show as a metaphor for the sunset and used a lot of theatrical elements to describe natural characteristics. Even though the sunset occurs everyday without fail, it should be observed as if it is a once in a lifetime opportunity.