Albertine Press Somerville, Mass

Cape Cod Guest House Series

Chelsea Hotel Part 1 (Jan 2009- New York City) Dianne Robitaille

(CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE)

From Poet Linda Lerner:

Terrific photos! As Doug knows my late partner & I stayed there
after 9/11 when our apartment was contaminated, and it was
the perfect hideaway. I recall wandering around the halls looking at the art,
even decorations on some of the doors. I didn't have a camera with me,
or many of my things. At that time,
the precious owner Stanley Bard was there, and he couldn't
have been more welcoming and understanding.
When there wasn't enough room available, he let people
sleep in the lobby, on the floor, wherever.
He kept telling us not to worry about the money,
that FEMA would pay us, or someone.
We had a great big Victrorian room, with a fireplace, those huge windows,
and except for the TV, (on constantly then, of course) we could have been
somewhere way back in time.
I can't imagine what it's like now without Stanley--
I mean the place probably looks the same, I pass by there often, but
it was his presence that created the right atmosphere.
Your photos bring back some of it.
Linda

Linda Lerner
llerner@mindspring.com
http://www.nyqpoets.net/poet/lindalerner

Photographic Study of the Chelsea Hotel Part 2 (NewYork City Jan 2009) Dianne Robitaille

The Creek

The Creek

You never
seem to
change as
I peer out
from this
point, years
later.
Stumps, rocks,
sticks, dead leaves,
mud.

The gray sky
bleeds into
your water
that crawls
like snakeskin
as it winds
further into
the woods.

Here my shoes
seep into
the ground.
My steps
become lead.

Turning,
I start to run
thinking I might
be swallowed
up by our anger.

--Dianne Robitaille

Review of Leaving Only Impressions by Dianne Robitaille

Leaving Only Impressions, poetry by Dianne Robitaille, 1999, $3 check made out to Ibbetson St. Press, 33 Ibbetson Street, Somerville, MA 02143.


I enjoyed this chapbook and had not seen Dianne's poetry before. The writing is crisp, clear, succinct, and to the point, like a Raymond Carver short story. The emotions are heartfelt, soul-searching, honest and raw. So many good poems, impossible to capture the essence of this chap in just one poem excerpt, but I loved the ending poem, it was the most majestic: Lost Love reads:

"If it were to be said that the night engulfs you, that all thoughts hang on old laundry cords--frozen with ice bits that knowledge is something privileged--a table setting for engaging friends sharing warm laughter if it were to be said that touch heals worn souls, and life, born in clay molds, forms sparks of glazing light setting ablaze willful love; that one's mind may expand then dive deep into life's seeding marrow; that naked eyes spanning one's lifetime may dispel of blind hindsight, then it would be a fair and good thing to lay on the ground, gently counting and gathering star bodies so they may be carefully held in one's pocket.

" Poetry of rare beauty and hard won truths, Dianne Robbitaille's Leaving Only Impressions is highly recommended.

---LUCID MOON POETRY.COM

Music by Dianne Robitaille

MUSIC

Music makes me nervous.
Its intention-bending,
bowing and dripping--each note
dressed up longing for its
own reflection, orchestrating
its own flavor--An intrusion
I feel, vibrating my nerves
from the want of another
plucked string.
Give me a quiet room, more
enclosed not alluring to
persistent vexations.
How light and stillness
assert an assumed calmness
like sun streaks wrapped
warmly around
a cloth couch--where I
can peacfully lie--burying
my head into the blurring
fur of gracious silence.

* This poem was from Robitaille's collection "Leaving Only Impressions." ( Ibbetson 2000)