We're very excited about this year's Hoot experiment: HO(O)T Summer Poetry, two summer evenings dedicated entirely to open mic readings from the community. The first, on July 2, brought nearly 60 people to Café Espresso to read poems and to listen. How lucky we are to have such a talented and prolific poetry community and we'll celebrate that again on Wednesday, Aug. 6. Bring your friends and your poems and join us!

Hugh Hennedy, one of our readers on July 2, will also be a featured reader at a regular Hoot on Wednesday, Sept. 3. Here, he speaks to an acquaintance who has passed on through this poem; a quiet reflection on time, change and loss.

— Lesley Kimball

 

At Windows on the Water

One of the last times we had lunch together

You wanted Jacques to take me here

Today it is open for lunch and I

Having lost my wife am here alone

Your Eva having already lost you

Looking through tall windows down at a place

Where we did several times lunch together

I find now to be rather pleasant

I had not expected to be addressing

You throughout a poem even though

You appear in one of mine set at the Pool

But here we are now near the Port

And I am talking to you who turned out

To be more than a decent human being

Despite what Frank still thinks of you

Despite even my own recent loss

I find myself thinking of you

— Hugh Hennedy

 

"At Windows on the Water" Copyright 2008 by Hugh Hennedy. Hugh Hennedy's poems have appeared in many periodicals, including Puckerbrush Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, James Joyce Quarterly, Hawaii Review, and Tar River Poetry. His newest book of poetry is Variations on a Natural Theme: A Loon Year (Hobblebush Books, 2008), preceded by Old Winchester Hill (Enright House, 1993), and Halcyon Time (Oyster River Press, 1993).