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Renowned poet and educator Tom Daley returns to the GWC to read from his just-published chapbook, Far Cry.
Tom Daley is one of the “summer people” of Cape Ann whom Gloucester poet Charles Olson inveighed against. He and his family spent summer vacations on Coffin’s Beach in West Gloucester. They all fell under the spell of the smack of the harbor water on pilings and the clash of fish scents wobbling through the streets of downtown Gloucester. Sunday Mass at Our Lady of Good Voyage was invariably followed by a stop at Tony’s on Washington Street, where the memory of the intense peppermint of the hand-packed ice cream is stronger than any August headline in the New York Times from that era, also purchased at Tony’s. It was in Ipswich Bay that he accustomed himself to water, in the words of the poet, Max Heinegg, “so cold it does the trembling for you.” Water any warmer than that is barely tolerable.
Tom Daley’s poetry has appeared in North American Review, Harvard Review, Massachusetts Review, 32 Poems, Fence, Denver Quarterly, Crazyhorse, Prairie Schooner, Witness, and elsewhere. He is a recipient of the Dana Award in Poetry. FutureCycle Press published his first collection of poetry, House You Cannot Reach—Poems in the Voice of My Mother and Other Poems. He is the author of a play, Every Broom and Bridget—Emily Dickinson and Her Irish Servants, and of the chapbook Far Cry, published by Ethel. He leads writing workshops in the Boston area and online for poets and writers working in creative prose.