Buccino's Old View of Nutley in Verse

Buccino to read ‘Nutley’ poem 
at anthology launch

Local writer scores a poem about Nutley’s rich history in the new anthology “The American Voice in Poetry: The Legacy of Whitman, Williams and Ginsberg” being published as part of the Distinguished Poets Series at the Poetry Center in Paterson.

The Nutley author weaves a poem around Frances Goodrich, who grew up in town and went on to write the “Thin Man” film series and later won a Pulitzer Prize for the play “The Diary of Anne Frank.”

Buccino’s poem suggests Goodrich’s screenplay for the popular Christmas film “It’s A Wonderful Life” has hints of old Nutley, and that the scene of the angel and George on the bridge may have been inspired by the Lyndhurst bridge over the Passaic River, not far from where Goodrich grew up.

In recalling Nutley of about 100 years ago, Buccino cites Guthrie’s Dry Good Store and some of our famous residents and visitors, including Mark Twain, Annie Oakley and Richard Stockton lining up for that new invention called ice cream.

Frances Goodrich was inducted into the Nutley Hall of Fame in 2005. Buccino stood in for the writer and her family at the ceremony.

Buccino will read “A Wonderful Town” at the book launch and poetry reading by contributors to the anthology on April 10, at 1 P.M., Hamilton Club Building, 32 Church Street, Paterson, N.J. For more information, visit Distinguished Poets Series http://old.pccc.edu/poetry/events.htm

See also:
http://www.oldnutley.org/wonderful.htm


Copyright © 2010 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.

NEWS!
Check out Anthony Buccino's poetry and essay collections

Three essay collections by Anthony Buccino are available on Kindle.
A Father's Place, An Eclectic Collection
Sister Dressed Me Funny
Rambling Round, Inside and Outside at the Same Time

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A GEMINI POET!

Who knew all these years that poet Allen Ginsberg (born Newark, N.J, 6.3.26 - d. 4.5.97) was a gemini?

Adaptable and versatile
Communicative and witty
Intellectual and eloquent
Youthful and lively

Nervous and tense
Superficial and inconsistent
Cunning and inquisitive
... Gemini

Learn more at www.ginsbergmovie.com.

Wikipedia on Allen Ginsberg

Poet Ginsberg: 'Keep on breathing'

Your Inner Kerouac

Waterloo Village Revisited

Other famous Geminis (May 21 to June 21):

Bob Dylan
Uncle Tonoose
Marilyn Monroe
John F. Kennedy
Clint Eastwood
Donald Trump
Marquis de Sade
David Berkowitz

Copyright © 2008 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.

THE PATERSON LITERARY REVIEW #36

PLR

We got a sneak peek at the top poems in the upcoming Paterson Literary Review #36 which is due out in a few weeks. (It would make a great gift for the poetry lover in your life!)

The Distinguished Poets Series at The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College sponsored a poetry reading and awards ceremony Saturday for the upcoming PLR36.

We heard first place winners Kenneth Hart and Glenn Morazzini, as well as second place winner Linda Radice read the judges top selections.

If you were there, then you know why this anthology is so highly anticipated. If you weren't there, well, it's like trying to tell a stranger about rock n' roll. You had to be there. Or wait for the book.

We heard the honorable mention poems from Christine Anne Amato, Susan Gerardi Bello, Linda Cronin, Susan Deer Cloud, Michelle Lerner, Maria Lisella, Bruce A. Lowry, Dorothy McLaughlin, Robert Rosenbloom, Metta Sama, Mattew J. Spireng and Steve Hillard Swartz.

In the center hall where refreshments were served, there was a table with books that said, free, take one.

Looking over the back PLR issues, I asked if I could take only one or one of each.

To my delight, they said take one of each. So, without being a hog about it, I grabbed one copy each of PLR 28, 29, 30 and 31 (1200 pages of fresh poetry!). They should go nicely with my PLR 34 and PLR 35 at home. Oh, by the way, the PLR is no lightweight chapbook, each issue is about 300 pages.

The more Jersey poetry events I attend it seems that I am getting to know some people and actually be recognized, too, from some of my open readings.

Warren County

One woman told me recently that she recognized me from the open reading session at Warren County Poetry Festival in September.
Susanna Rich, a scheduled reader at WCPF, read Saturday. I could see her looking at me when I was looking at her. I figured she might have remembered me, but who knows. Finally, she said, Who are you? and I told her I had spoken with her at Warren and emailed a few things.

I can still see you reading your 'baseball' poem on the stage at Warren, I said, apologizing for making her guess who I was. I said I didn't come over because I thought she might think I'm stalking her. The more of these things I go to, the more people I'm starting to know.

She said, don't apologize. And, by the way.

The man standing next to her said this is a small group, the Mutual Stalking Society.

I asked about her publishing prospects and she said she'll be doing a one-woman show at Kean in March, I should check the calendar.

After a break, we heard the Editor's Choice awards from Laurie Byro, Gil Fagiani, James D. Gwyn, Gloria Rovder Healy, Charles Johnson, Laine Sutton Johnson, Don Lynch, Howard Nelson, Susanna Rich and Kelly Vande Plasse.

The scene, at the beautiful Hamilton Club Building in Paterson, could hardly have been more conducive to enjoying an afternoon of poetry.

And, by the way, if you're wondering, I did not enter the PLR competition this year. I did enter the Ginsberg competition, but I think that might be apples and oranges.

Check out the Poetry Center web site for submissions for the William Carlos Williams tribute they are doing next year, and while you're at it, write a north Jersey poem, too.

Writers' grief, fury, love is in work is a story about Maria Mazziotti Gillan and the Allen Ginsberg Awards from the North Jersey Herald on Friday.

The Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival 2008

TELEVISION DADDY: A ONE-WOMAN AUDIENCE-INTERACTIVE POETRY PERFORMANCE; Sponsored by The Women's Studies Program, Kean University, Union, NJ 07083; Vaughn-Eames Theater 119, 7:30-8:30 PM; MARCH 11, 2008; Contact: Susanna Rich, (908) 737-0395

Copyright © 2007 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.

Your Inner Kerouac

"explore your inner Kerouac".

"Listen to Your Innner Kerouac!"

"Release your inner Kerouac" (a billboard quote)

PATH poster, Exchange Place, Jersey City

Can you imagine what Jack would say about being part of a state's tourism advertising campaign?

After all these years, 55 years ago there was Town And The City, then in '57 On The Road, and before you knew it he was gone. And forty years later you're reading a blog about him. Don't that beat all?

A long time ago, Allen Ginsberg & his dad, Louis, did a joint reading at Rutgers in Newark.

Allen recited a poem about that mentioned the Gorny & Gorny Mortuary, and the train line going through Belleville, my home town. He played something like an accordian or a squeeze box, and before you knew it, we were chanting along.

I don't think I ever heard a poem before that mentioned my home town - at least not one written by world-famous poet, nor a poem that mentioned things I had seen on my own.

Allen told a story about being mugged for his wallet. So they got his wallet and left him his worthless briefcase filled with $20,000 of manuscripts.

Louis was known for his newspaper filler called O-Pun Mind that used verse and puns. They ran in the Star Ledger on the editorial or op-ed page.

Anyway, to make a long story short, at the reception afterward, I asked Allen for advice. He said, "Keep breathing."

Wow. I bet even (my future music critic partner) John Narucki was impressed, but I never thought to ask him.

Then Allen said he wanted to spend some time with his father who, back in the 1970s, was already an old man.

Maybe I should have asked Allen about Kerouac and those old days?

The Independent Press of Bloomfield ran the story I wrote about the reading: Anthony Hears The Ginsbergs. I guess you can find it in the library. I have a copy in my attic, with my copy of Kaddish, and my copies of The Town & The City, On The Road, Dharma Bums, Desolation Angels, and Pip.

Up in the boxes and the dust are a lot of paperbacks I bought way back in the day at the Paperback Book Store on Bloomfield Avenue in Bloomfield Center, Bloomfield, N.J.

Who knows, I might even find the rejection letter I got from City Lights Books when they said they didn't want my poetry. I bet that would look good in a frame, or on my web site.
Some day, maybe it'll turn up in a tourism ad for some state that rhymes with New Jersey?
How does this catch-phrase grab you:

Turn yourself loose, take a ride with Uncle Tonoose

Or this one:

Hop on the caboose with Uncle Tonoose!

Or:

Turn Out The City Lights
&
Turn Loose Your Inner Tonoose!

Kerouac dot com

The Official Jack Kerouac site

Copyright © 2005 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.
Updated May 2008, Jan. 2020

Links subject to change.