
INSIDE THIS EDITION:
- LLC: TALK IT UP
- POETRY FROM LLC'S READ, LISTEN, BE INSPIRED, WRITE: LEAVING by Catherine Cochran; NOVEMBER 6, 2024 by Charron Holtzman; ODE TO MY PACEMAKER by Adelina Axelrod
- ON BORROWED TIME by Bill Hudson
- FRIENDS OF ROCHAMBEAU ANNUAL MEDIA SALE (CDs/DVDs/VINYL) (Feb 7 & Feb 8)
Click on the links to jump to the article.
LLC: Talk It Up

“To say that word of mouth is the best form of advertising is a cliché, but like most clichés it earned its designation by being true.”
– Art Norwalk, Marketing Committee Chair
Do you have friends or family who want to meet new people or are looking for interesting activities? Talk up LLC.
Often when people are experiencing changes in their lives or are new to Providence, they are not certain on how to become involved, meet new friends, and explore interesting activities. If you know someone who is in that situation, you can introduce them to the idea of becoming involved with Lifelong Learning Collaborative. They can start by watching a free lecture online, visit our website (lifelonglearningcollaborative.org) or check out our course catalog. After joining and experiencing all that LLC offers, they may want to teach a course or become a tutor, fully participate in a program on the arts, or even take on a leadership role. This is a way for them to meet new friends, learn about subjects that intrigue them and have a focus in their days.
Many of us have made meaningful friendships and cultivated new interests through our membership in LLC. New members are most welcome!
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Read, Listen, Be Inspired, Write
The following are poems crafted by poets in the class titled Read, Listen, Be Inspired, Write. We researched eight more or less modern poets analyzing their lives and times. We explored their various styles and use of poetic devises. Each week we submitted original poetry emulating the poets' themes and/or styles. These poems were submitted at the end of the course, representing a poet who inspired their work.

h9images @ freepik.com
Leaving
by Catherine Cochran
Standing on the threshold a silhouette bathed in moonlight. Was the clue in the silence of the snow, or fingers frozen together in embrace as we moved through the December night?
December comes quickly. The light spilling from the doors as they open and close makes it hard to see the stars. I move through the hospital corridors, and remember that I am alone.
I see the knit cap, and orange skin, and know I have walked into July. Salt dried lips crack open under the florescent light. The dance of leaving has begun.
A month seems such a short time to say goodbye. I move toward you and away, and back again. You tell me you will be relocating to a new address, and I wonder how I will find you there. Will you be resting, or walking with frozen fingers in the the silence of December?
November 6, 2024
by Charron Holtzman
Inspired by Sylvia Plath’s “Song for a Summer’s Day”
A few fiery leaves quiver
Like little waves goodbye
On the dogwood below my window.
The forsythia nearby shoots
Several crimson flags in the air
To counter the quick-spreading yellow.
Those are what I’m seeing
Of an autumn quietly leaving.
As the lights of fall flicker
Over the slowing grass,
Dead brown leaves bank
At the edge of beds like
Balled-up discarded drafts.
The shrubs have paused like sculptures
Waiting for snow cover.
The river’s blue grows darker.
Two small birds hover at the birdhouse,
One enters. A bluejay patrols
The yews as a steady wind
Palsies the decaying mums.
Low clouds lay a shroud
Across the delicate sky.
To mourn a season going’s self-deceiving.
The end of truth and trust is what I’m grieving.

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Zenartix @ freepik.com
Ode to my Pacemaker
by Adelina Axelrod
Inspired by Karl Shapiro
My ancestors reached across the Atlantic
Left me with a weakened heart
grandfathers, all perished
On my way to work
Huffing and puffing
Shortness of breath
My heart will not stop beating
in the middle of night
I reside in America
A cornucopia of cardiologists to choose from
Cardiologist installed a pacemaker
Shiny gray device with a triple AAA battery
Size of a matchbox
Installed below the collar bone
Left side of my chest
Pacemaker comes with leads
Red and green insulated wires
Spaghetti noodles connected to heart chambers
Slow rhythm, slow heartbeat
Fewer than 60 times a minute
Electrical signals
Impulses to the heart
Increase the rate
Start the heart beat
Restart the heart
I can go to the moon
I can go on a hot air balloon
I can climb a mountain
Drink from a fountain

On Borrowed Time
By Bill Hudson
In the 1970s, my wife and I often socialized with a group of good friends. We gathered at local restaurants, hosted dinners at each other’s houses, ventured to Boston together for plays and concerts, and, sometimes, went disco dancing.
One New Year’s Eve, my wife and I hosted our friends at our house. The plan was to gather around 6 PM, enjoy cocktails and dinner, then await a celebration of the New Year at midnight. Each of our friends contributed something to the dinner, but the main dish was to be our friend Carl’s famous lasagna. Just about everyone arrived at our house as planned around 6 PM.
One friend, Tommy, came a little late, but full of enthusiasm. He brought with him champagne, a bottle of bourbon, and a metal ladle. That morning, he had seen Julia Child on the Today Show create the perfect New Year’s Eve cocktail and he was determined to duplicate it. The cocktail involved pouring champagne into glasses, heating the bourbon in the ladle over an open flame, tilting it slightly to flame the bourbon, then pouring the bourbon into the champagne glasses. My wife and I had ourselves seen Julia create this concoction that morning and were dubious. But Tommy was confident he could pull it off. We let him try.
Tommy prepared the champagne, popping the cork, and pouring it into glasses. Then, as Julia had instructed, he filled a metal ladle with bourbon and heated it over the open flame of our gas stove. When the bourbon seemed warm enough, he gently tilted the ladle, as Julia had expertly done that morning on Today. A giant flame burst from the ladle. In a panic, Tommy dropped the ladle onto our linoleum floor and its years of built-up wax. Soon a fire was advancing across our kitchen floor. At that instant, I did precisely the wrong thing. I ran into our pantry, grabbed our flour container, and poured it onto the flaming floor. Flour, of course, is flammable and my action could have created a catastrophe. Luckily, the volume of flour on flames that had not yet established themselves smothered the flames. Our house was saved from immolation. (Image by freepik.com)
This incident put a damper on our celebration. Our guests drank the champagne sans bourbon; I took a couple of slugs of the bourbon. Tommy was bereft. He spent the rest of the evening apologizing for nearly burning down our house. Though subdued, we nibbled on appetizers, awaiting the piece de resistance – Carl’s lasagna. Carl had prepared his specialty several days in advance and froze it. He put it in the oven frozen saying it would warm up fine. We placed the various side dishes and salads on the table ready for the main dish to be ready.
After an hour or more of nibbling appetizers, everyone gathered at the table to await the lasagna – and waited and waited. Every few minutes, Carl would go to the oven to test the pasta’s progress only to report that it was far from hot. We passed the wine and amused ourselves with conversation, going over in detail the close call with the flaming bourbon, to Tommy’s chagrin. We continued to wait for Carl’s lasagna wondering if we would be eating it in the new year.
Around 9 PM, Carl declared the lasagna ready to eat. It was delicious. Sated, our conversation dwindled over the dinner table. In the hours waiting for our dinner, we seemed to have covered all topics and gossip, yet midnight was two hours or so away. We were ready with our party hats and noise makers to welcome in the new year but wondered how to pass the time until it arrived. Someone suggested that we see if there was an old movie on TV to watch. I checked TV Guide and discovered that a 1939 movie named On Borrowed Time was scheduled on one of the channels. The write-up said it starred Lionel Barrymore and Sir Cedric Hardwicke. With such famous actors we thought it might be worth a look. We gathered around the TV in our living room.
A more depressing movie has never been made. The opening scene is a car crash in which a young couple is killed. They leave a young son, Pud, who goes to live with his grandparents whom he loves, especially his Gramps, played by Barrymore. This is not going to be a happy ending for the young lad. Both grandparents are in ill health. First, Death, played by Hardwicke, comes to take away Pud’s grandmother. Then when Gramps has a heart attack, Death returns to take him. Wily Gramps, however, convinces Death to climb a magic apple tree in the yard in which he is trapped and cannot come down until Gramps permits him. With Death trapped in the apple tree, nothing on earth can die. This seems like a happy situation. Gramps and Pud are together, and death cannot separate them. Soon, some disadvantages to Death’s disappearance become evident. With Death gone, people suffering from painful, debilitating diseases remain alive in their misery, freed from the release of death. Gramps is among them, as his heart condition puts him in ever greater pain. The plot takes some convoluted turns resulting in Pud himself being seriously injured, in what normally would be a fatal accident. Without death, of course, he only suffers. Seeing Pud’s suffering, Gramps calls Death down from the tree who takes them both.
This movie put to death all spirit of celebration for our little party. When midnight came, we tried to ring in the New Year, but our party hats and noise makers failed to dispel the somber mood. The near fire, the interminable wait for the lasagna, and the miserable movie made this a New Year’s Eve to forget. As our friends took their leave, we all hoped that this unhappy New Year’s Eve would not be a prelude to an unhappy 1980.
macrovector@ freepik.com


The Friends of Rochambeau Annual Media Sale
Thousands of previously owned CDs, Vinyl, and DVDs – jazz, classical, pop, folk, international
Recorded books on CD.
Foreign language DVDs.
Books pertaining to Music: $1-2 (sets priced higher).
Some items specially priced.
Items have been donated by patrons of the library. No ex-library items.
Friday, February 7 @ 1-4:30 PM
Saturday, February 8 @ 9:30 AM-4 PM
Location: Rochambeau Branch of Community Libraries of Providence, 708 Hope Street, Providence
This fundraiser is sponsored by the Friends of Rochambeau Ltd, a 501c3 entity
Questions? [email protected] or www.friendsofrochambeau.org

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash
