Walter Howard Poems Being Sought

Walter Howard reading at Stone Soup, May 2, 2011.

This email came to me via Joan Kimball of the Wayland Poetry Workshop. It came to me in February, but I missed it amidst the chaos in my life. I'm posting it now, as Walter was a fixture at Stone Soup and elsewhere for years.

Personal information omitted.

Dear Friends,
 
Perhaps you already know this, but if not, I thought I should alert you to the fact that Walter Howard is in a rehab-nursing home... He’s been there since the fall, I believe, when he fell outside his apartment...There does not seem to be any movement to find other housing for him, and none of his family is disposed to take him in. If he had some minor memory problems, where he is doesn’t make it better.

We in the Wayland Poetry Workshop are collecting as many of his poems as we can get our hands on, and planning to publish them in a book. If you have any poems other than those on the attached list, we would love to have a copy.

For Walter, It’s not easy living in an institution with a room mate. He says it’s a prison, as he’s locked in. But his room is across the hall from a small dining room with tables and chairs, where Nancy Geiser and I, both of the Wayland Poetry Workshop, sat with him and talked. The head of the Natick Writers Guild showed up (Mike Franklin) so we had a good discussion. Others from the guild and from our group have visited him, and it’s easy to do it.

[Email me if you want to contact or visit Walter. I can send you that info.]

If you have poems by Walter for Joan, email her at jawkimballATgmail.com

A list of poems by Walter Howard Lincoln Howard, Jr.
 

Collected by Joan Kimball, Nancy Geiser, Kay Harrington, Debra Martin, Francine Brown and Rachel Greenstein. The initials in brackets indicate who has a copy.

* An asterisk indicates that I have NOT copied it into a file to send to Debbie, Jan. 8, because I haven't gotten a copy from Walter.

**A double asterisk means I have NOT copied it from Francine's official copies in the Longfellow Society Journal, but I expect to receive photocopies from her that I can digitize and send to Debbie.

A

Akmahtova  (published in Boston Poetry Journal, Virgin Voyage, pages 32-34) [JK]

AMAZING GRACE: to be sung to the tune of Danny Boy  (published in The Longfellow Society Journal, vol. XIV, 2003) [JK, FB]

**APPLES OF IMMORTALITY: After the Funeral [JK, KH, FB]

( (I have 2 versions called "After the Funeral" shared 12/14/11 & 5/9/12 plus one on 5/22/12 called "Apples of Immortality: After the Funeral." Francine has the copy published in The Longfellow Society Journal, vol. XX, 2010)

ATTACK UPON CHRISTENDOM: Good Friday: Natick Common, Natick, Mass., 1995. [JK}

Attack Upon Christendom: Good Friday, San Antonio, Texas, 1977 [JK]

B

Bells of Cedar Gardens [JK, NG]

Black Swan, 12-6-02 [JK]

**BOTTICELLI'S APHRODITE (published in The Longfellow Society Journal, vol. XII, 2001) [RG, FB]

C

Christina Olson, 1947 (with Andrew Wyeth picture of woman in doorway) [JK]

**CITY OF LIGHTS (published in The Longfellow Society Journal, vol. XVI, 2005) [FB]

D

Day Dream I [NG, JK]

DAY DREAM TWO [JK]

Deaths: 1620. Dec. 7. Dorothy. Wife to Mr. William Bradford. (from Bradford's journal) [JK]

The Dunes at Provincetown: To Doctor Peter Martin [JK]

E

Emerging [JK]

Eulogy for Beatrice Duarte: The Queen Mum Passed,  4-11-02 [JK]

Eulogy to Edward Bonetti  (published in ­­­­­­­­­______________ pages 89-91, edited by Nora Bamford) [JK, KH]

**EVENING ENCOUNTER (published in The Longfellow Society Journal, vol. XVIII, 2007) [FB]

F

Federico Garcia Lorca Remembered copied from Kay's copy [KH]

Ferryman with Heart of Red Silk [JK]

**FINALITY GULCH (published in The Longfellow Society Journal, vol. IX, 1998) [FB]

Full Moon [JK, KH]

H

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (published in The Longfellow Society Journal, vol .XVI, 2005) [FB]

**HE/SHE (published in The Longfellow Society Journal, vol. XVIII, 2007) [FB]

**Hooper's Island (published in The Longfellow Society Journal, vol. X, 1998-99) [NG, FB]

I

THE IDES OF MARCH (published in The Longfellow Society Journal, vol. XV, 2004) [JK,FB]

**IN THE SILENT LAND (published in The Longfellow Society Journal, vol. XIII, 2002) [FB]

J

*Jack Powers [DM]

L

**LAMENT (published in The Longfellow Society Journal, vol. X, 1998-99) [FB]

Lament for a Drowned Girl: Fearing's Pond, Miles Standish State Reservation, S. Carver, Mass. August 1938 (published in The Longfellow Society Journal, vol. XV, 2004  [JK,FB]

Longfellow's Rose Garden, Wayside Inn, Sudbury, Mass., Sept. 28, 1999 (published in The Longfellow Society Journal, vol. XI, 2000 [JK, KH, FB, RG]

**LONGFELLOW'S WAYSIDE INN (published in The Longfellow Society Journal, vol. XVII, 2006) [FB]

Lost Love [JK]

*Lost Love IV [NG]

M

Madre, 6-22/23-10 [JK]

Mark Stephen Howard: Jan. 30, 2001 [JK, KH]

Meditation 5-23-03 (starts: "I search my skull's landscape") [JK]

Meditation in the Pasture by the Old Mill AND THE WAYSIDE INN or "TIME WITHIN A TIME" copied from Kay's copy [KH]

Meeting House Hill: Rockingham, Vermont Recalled, October 13, 2010 [JK] (published?)

*MID OCTOBER 2002 [DM]

The Misbegotten [JK]

Mona Lisa OR WOMAN: on themes suggested by Walter Pater [NG, JK]

Moon 1-22-06 [JK]

The Moon In a Bad Mood [JK]

*MORNING [DM found it online]

N

The Naked and the Dead (shared 6/5/02, 1/16/13, 10/2/13) [JK, KH]

Night (shared 4/2/03, revised 5/21/03) [JK]

**NOW I LAY ME DOWN TO SLEEP (published in The Longfellow Society Journal, vol. XVII, 2006) [FB]

O

Ocean Park, Maine, Aug. 13, 2009: At Dawn [JK]

Of Time and the River #1: the Sudbury River as Viewed from Rte. 20 West, May 2002

with a first line: "Roll river roll" [JK]

OF TIME AND THE RIVER #2: with a first line: "I crossed the bridge" a completely different poem from the other with the same name. [JK]

*OLD DEACON BLACKBIRD [DM]

The Old Man of the Mountain: After Aduren Olbap [JK]

**OLD WOMAN LOOKING OUT TO SEA (published in The Longfellow Society Journal, vol. VII, 1996) [FB]

P

Passage, 11-31-01  (shared 1/8/03, revised 6/6/12) [JK]

Pilgrim's REgress: Marblehead, May 1969 [JK]

Poetry: After Pablo Neruda [JK]

THE POET'S DEATH: The Anne Sexton (1928-1974) Commemorative, Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain, Mass. November 17, 2002 (published in The Longfellow Society Journal, XIV, 2003) [RG, JK, FB]

Probe: First Encounter with Octavio Paz, June 8, 1998 [JK, KH]

R

**REFLECTION (published in The Longfellow Society Journal, vol. XIX, 2009) [FB]

Resurrection copied from Kay's copy [KH]

"The River of Love" Hylas and the Water Nymphs, 9-19-02  (with quote from Lorca) [JK]

S

Sarah Peters: in Memoriam, July 4, 2012 [JK, NG, KH]

*Spring Awakening [NG]

Spring in Union Park [JK, KH]

*STAR [DM found online]

**THE STORM (published in The Longfellow Society Journal, vol. XI, 2000) [RG, FB]

The Sudbury River: Dedicated to Dee West [JK]

Sunday Morning (Encounter with Wallace Stevens) [JK]

T

**TILL WE HAVE FACES (published in The Longfellow Society Journal, vol. VIII, 1997) [FB]

**TIME (published in The Longfellow Society Journal, vol. XIX, 2009) [FB]

Transfiguration: Metamorphosis: Born Again: New Birth [JK]

(question: which is the right title for this poem?)

Twilight Song, February 1998(first line: Twilight shadows secret themselves. Shared 1/30/13 & 2/28/13) [JK, NG, KH]

U

Über Allen Gipfeln: After Johann Wolfgang von Goethe  (published in the Boston Poetry Journal. Translation of title: "Over All the Heights") [JK]

W

Wanderer: May 2002 [JK]

White Goddess [JK]

Woman at the Well [JK]

Y

Yellow Moon: July 22, 2002 [JK]

 

ABOUT WALTER

Walter has been a part of the Boston poetry scene for decades.

Walter was the featured reader on April 10, 2011, introduced by Rachel Greenstein, at the Wayland Poetry Workshop Annual Reading.

The poetry reading series Stone Soup featured him on May 25, 2009 at the Out of the Blue Art Gallery, 106 Prospect St, Cambridge, MA.

Chad Parenteau of Stone Soup described him thus: "Walter Howard is a retired history professor, English teacher, and journalist. He is a member of the Longfellow Society, Natick Writers Group, and the Wayland Poetry Workshop. His poems have appeared in Motive, Longfellow Journal, Ibbetson Street Press, Journal of Modern Writing, Endicott Review, and others. He is a longtime fixture in the poetry scene and the open miker's open miker."

(Note: The gallery moved in 2014 to 541 Mass. Ave. and changed its name to Out of the Blue Too.)

Francine has the following copies of The Longfellow Society Journal in which Walter has published: vols. VII(1996), VIII(1997), IX(1998), X(1998-99), XI(2000), XII(2001), XIII(2002), XIV(2003), XV(2004), XVI(2005), XVII(2006), XVIII(2007), XIX(2008), XX(2010). (Rachel and I have a few of those, also.)

The Journal used to publish two poems from each member, once a year, plus an occasional poem from non-members. The following people may have been in the Society in other years and have other Longfellow Journal volumes that we have not looked at: Arlene Weiland, John Mylotte, Dee Basch and bg Thurston.  (Dee and bg moved away, so we don't see them any more. The others are in our address list.)

Contact information for Dee and bg:

Dee Basch          bg Thurston