Hearing the Old Man: Poems of the Old Man of the Mountain

Presented as part of our 2023 An Enduring Presence: The Old Man of the Mountain Event Series. This project was made possible with support from New Hampshire Humanities, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities. Learn more at www.nhhumanities.org.

Join host Midge Goldberg along with Liz Ahl, Melanie Chicoine, Robert W. Crawford, Gordon Lang, Josh Nicolaisen, and special guest Don Kimball to “hear” the Old Man through contemporary (and a few older) poems about The Old Man of the Mountain and the White Mountains.

Midge Goldberg is the editor of the anthology Outer Space: 100 Poems, published by Cambridge University Press in December 2022. Her third collection of poetry, To Be Opened After My Death, was published by Kelsay Books in 2021. Her book Snowman’s Code received the Richard Wilbur Poetry Award as well as the 2016 NH Literary Awards Readers Choice in Poetry. She lives in New Hampshire with her family, two cats, and an ever-changing number of chickens.

Liz Ahl is the author of A Case for Solace (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2022) and Beating the Bounds (Hobblebush Books, 2017), as well as several chapbooks, including A Thirst That’s Partly Mine, winner of the 2008 Slapering Hol chapbook prize. She is professor of English at Plymouth State University.

Melanie Chicoine lives in Amherst N.H. with her husband, poet Ala Khaki. Melanie’s poems have appeared in Poets’ Guide to NH: More Places, More Poets, COVID Spring – Granite State Pandemic Poems, and others. Melanie is currently serving as president on the Board of Directors for the Poetry Society of New Hampshire, and was a recent chief editor of PSNH’s literary journal, The Poets’ Touchstone.

Robert W. Crawford is the author of The Empty Chair (University of Evansville), winner of the 2011 Richard Wilbur Award, and Too Much Explanation Can Ruin a Man (David Robert Books). He has twice won the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award. He is the Director of Frost Farm Poetry in Derry, N.H., which includes the Hyla Brook Reading Series, the Frost Farm Poetry Conference, and the Frost Farm Poetry Prize.

Gordon Lang is a retired high school English teacher who raises Irish wolfhounds and gypsy horses.  His work is collected in two books, Graphic Sax & Violins and No Match for a Scarecrow.

Josh Nicolaisen lives in Campton, New Hampshire with his wife, Sara, and their daughters, Grace and Azalea. He is a professional gardener and former high school teacher. He holds an MFA from Randolph College and is a Pushcart Prize nominee. Josh’s work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Colorado Review, Clockhouse, So It Goes, Appalachian Review, and elsewhere.

Special guest reader Don Kimball’s latest book is Late Autumn Raking: New and Collected Poems, from Kelsay Books. He is a former president of the Poetry Society of New Hampshire.

This is a hybrid event. To receive the Zoom link, please register HERE.