New poem published today, The Stars Who Refuse to Burn Out, after Andrea Gibson on Oddball Magazine

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Grateful that my poem The Stars Who Refuse to Burn Out, after Andrea Gibson is live today, published on Oddball Magazine (a magazine for anyone who isn't anything)

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Andrea Gibson and her wife Megan

Poet Andrea Gibson (they/them) died. I didn't know them, and the poem is not about them. I can’t say that I loved them as much as others who  loved them, for the reasons they loved them, I had no reason to. The reasons being we don't have a lot of shared experiences in life, in poetic style, in gender, in acceptance for who they are etc.—-but I saw them in Nashville in 2020—- a packed house,  close to 350. 

I didn't even know of them at the time, but they were awesome, and brave with their words. . The poems were amazing, and the truth, no matter how vulnerable was inspiring. There’s a movie, called Come See Me in The Good Light you can watch about their life and fucking attitude regarding thier uncurable cancer, filmed after their diagnosis in 2021. 

So I wrote. I didn’t write it as a tribute, but rather an attempt (if at all possible,  impossible) to capture their poetic voice, their vulnerability in how in manifests in my life. Again it's not about Andrea Gibson but, I used some phrases I found on performances, and interviews on YouTube, as well as from their Substack. Read that when you get a chance.

Earlier this week I posted about Tom Tipton. I knew him. Today it is Andrea. I am amazed by them. I will not post about Ozzie Osbourne. Sorry.

"Art is for the People," RIP, Tom Tipton

      

Tom Tipton

Cambridge art icon, and friend Tom Tipton died this week. Here's a video, an outtake from a documentary, filmed in 2005. Come on and take a drive through Cambridge with Tom Tipton. 

Some 24 years ago, the Dire Literary Series had a 3 month run at The Cantab, which for the record was 3 events held. Poet Gary Hicks told me of this little place called The Out of the Blue Art Gallery in Cambridge, so I went down and met Tom Tipton and Debra Priestly. Within 10 minutes they said I could have a Friday Night there, once a month for 50 bucks. Simple, easy, and when it came to art, there was no other way with Tom. Without this, without Tom and Debra, the connections I've made in the writing community which has helped fueled my work and following would look paltry. Because of his generosity, Tom Tipton gets a lot of credit for what my writing career grew to. 

   Tom was a unique, hardworking gem to work with. His dream was to have an art gallery that anyone could access and make art. We developed a relationship, running into each other the nights of the Dire and during weekly meetings for the Gallery every Monday held at The Middle East. 

  Tom never gave up. The gallery moved from Brookline Ave., then to it's most well-known location, Prospect Street. In order to get an idea about what it was like, here's a clip from a Dire event in Tom's gallery in 2008. I'm the guy with hair. 

When the Prospect Street building was sold, Joseph and Nabil from The Middle East helped they move into a huge space, the former Blockbuster Video in Cambridge.  It still held art and now spaces/stores for the artist. It still made art and artists accessible. It still hosted poetry and it became kind of a rock club with live music on the weekends. It hosted electronic, eclectic, experimental, and this 80's sounding thing below by Dead Leaf Echo---it gave bands a venue to play out when they couldn't get into other clubs.  I ended up hosting198 Dire Events at those three OOTB Galleries. 

 After a few years there, in 2017, the rent went up to 10,000 dollars a month, and pretty much live Dire ended. There wasn't a solid reliable place to host it. Then I lost track of Tom and the Gallery, mostly because I didn't vibe with his new partner, but I regret not keeping in touch with Tom. He was a good one. 

Three Poems published by North of Oxford's July issue

  

   The online journal, North of Oxford, has two familiar names heading up their masthead, Diane Sahmes and g emil reutter, have I've known since 2008 when they edited the Fox Chase Review. It was very cool to see them start this new journal and to have three of my poems accepted for their July issue.  

NOTE: When reading on your phone, tilt it horizontal for the proper line breaks. 

Unattributed graphic 

 Here's the story behind the poems

 1) lepidopterans-  I wrote this at an evening at The Walnut Street Cafe in Lynn, a place I love, and a poetry series (Speak Up), I often attend. At their register is a glass display case with their selection of bottled beer. I wrote this poem about that. 

 2) The Storm He Can No Longer Remember: Written in my father's POV, near the end of his life. 

 3) When the Mind Goes First (for my father):  I lost my father in 2022, and although some say one never recovers from that, perhaps it's more like one doesn't wish to forget a loved one.  Reminiscing about my father thinking about his death. 

Wilderness House Literary Review publishes review of Shadows of the Seen

 I got a nice review from WHLR where, for years, I used to be their fiction editor, so the review really is by a friend of the family. 

To Purchase a copy check the many options, if you click this link at the bottom

Wilderness House Literary Review 20/2  

Shadows of the Seen by Timothy Gager 

ISBN 9781965784099 

Pierian Springs Press 

Review by a friend of the family 

Haunting, Riveting, and Relentlessly Honest: A Novel That Holds a Mirror to America 

Shadows of the Seen by Timothy Gager is a provocative and unflinching novel that dives deep into the fractured psyche of modern America, where personal trauma, political ambition, and gun violence collide in shocking and deeply human ways. 

The novel unfolds through a series of interconnected narratives—Candace, a rising Republican star with a carefully hidden past; Peter, her volatile former lover scarred by neglect and rage; Lucky, a man grasping for redemption; and Bobby-Joe, the clean-cut poster boy of conservative America. Gager skillfully explores how their lives twist together against a backdrop of political doublespeak, performative morality, and the devastating reality of gun culture. 

From the very first chapter, Gager’s voice is raw and unapologetic. His descriptions of violence and emotional despair don’t flinch—they cut. In particular, the prologue (“They Do Not Ring Out”) is a masterclass in immediacy and psychological detail, capturing the chaos and dissociation of a mass shooting with terrifying clarity. 

Candace’s journey—from a manipulated teen to a calculating political figure—is particularly compelling. Gager doesn’t paint her as simply hypocritical or villainous; rather, she’s deeply human, caught between ambition and suppressed trauma. Her ascent through political ranks, bolstered by a marriage of convenience and NRA backing, offers biting commentary on how “values” are twisted into strategy. 

The novel isn’t just about gun violence—it’s about what America chooses to see and what it insists on hiding. Gager skewers both ends of the political spectrum with equal precision, but reserves his sharpest critique for a society that treats mass shootings as background noise and politicians as products of marketing rather than moral conviction. 

Despite the heavy themes, Shadows of the Seen is compulsively readable. The pacing is brisk, the dialogue razor-sharp, and the structure—told through shifting points of view—keeps the emotional stakes high. 

If you’re looking for a novel that dares to confront the darkest corners of contemporary American life, this book delivers. It’s not comfortable. It’s not easy. But it’s necessary. Shadows of the Seen should be required reading—an unsettling parable of our times.

Reading some poems from "These New Orbs" on WGBH, Boston

Orb poems. These New Orbs my next book of poetry should be out sometime in the future. Right now it is floating like an orb, appearing like a ghost. 

At 4:20 of this video you will hear the poems These New Orbs and The Shape of Things

"Cats" (starring my feral cats) published in the Freshwater Review (The College of St. Scholastica journal)

     This is Oliver, a.k.a. Olive, a sweet feral cat I've fed for 12 years. She's one of four I feed, but she is a regular, visiting daily. Her sister Dusty comes by, 3-4 times per week. Neab old Orange Cat,  with a missing ear and closed eye, visits every so often, just to hiss at me, and then eat. There is one more, House Cat, who visits, but I try to chase her away. After all, she is a house cat belonging to one of my neighbors. No hand-outs for the able-bodied!

    

Olive and Dusty star as themselves in the work of fiction that The Freshwater Review, Volume 28, out of The College of St. Scholastica, generously published in their 28th Volume. The kitties didn't complain or sue me for using their story, which involves a kind woman who fed, and socialized them, before being taken from the world---her partner, Jesse becoming the cat-keeper. 

    The art on the cover is by Paul LaJeunesse, and this is the issue that nominated me for The Rose Warner Prize for Prose. 

    You can read the piece below, but it's much more beautiful in your hand, and cheap at $7. My thumb blocks the first two letters in "stroked," and the letter 's' in "soon". 

(That's All Folks)

My poem, "We" choreographed, spoken and danced to by Betsy Miller at Mass Poetry Festival June 1, 2025

 Mass Poetry Festival is an amazing joining of poets, readings, panels and anything poetry related. The headliners were: Diannely Antigua, Marilyn Chin, Ross Gay, Saeed Jones, Keetje Kuipers, Danez Smith, and Regie Gibson. I saw and hung out with people I hadn't seen for awhile, much too many to name. Fun, fun, weekend. It felt like a vacation. 

I was involved, directing the Poetry-Go-Round which featured rounds of poetry from reading series groups, The Garage Poets, Virtual Dire Series, Speak Up, Pour Me a Poem, Lily Poetry, and Stone Soup. 

I was very moved by the production of my poem "We" which was done by Betsy Miller.  You can view it here, and read it below. 

Replay Central, Virtual Dire Series, Jan-May 2025 (and all the rest)

January 2025

Eileen Pollack 

George S. Peterson

February 2025

Ellen Kombiyil

M.K. Jackson

March 2025

 Chad Parenteau

 Kerry Beth Neville

April 2025

Lawrence Kessenich

Linda Carney-Goodrich 

May 2025

Amy Alvarez

Kurt Baumeister

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The Rest of the Replay Centrals

Autumn 2024 (link to replay)

Jackie Corley, Dawn Tripp, Sara Letourneau, Kristin Bok, Edward Belfar, JoeAnn Hart, Margaret Young, Gabby Gilliam, Lee Varon 

Summer 2024 (link to replay website)

Susan Zalkind, Jessica Anya Blau, Gregory Wolos, Melissa Cundieff, Ben Tanzer, John Amen

Spring 2024 (link to replay website)

Doug Crandell, Mathew Olzmann, William Orem, Martin Ott, M.P. Carver, Phil Temples, Mag Gabbert, Robert Fleming, Danielle Legros George, Michael Keith, Mark Wish

Autumn-Winter 2023 (link to replay website)

Marianne Leone, Tiffany Davenport, Jennifer Friedman Lang, Ray Guidrox, Gary Grossman, Elizabeth McKim, Carla Panciera, Dr. Dannagal G. Young, Ellis Elliot, Enzo Silon Surin, Josh Barkan, Laura Zigman, Tom Laughlin

Spring/Summer 2023 (links to website)

Jane Roper, John Wesick, Jennifer Martelli, John Fulton, Tricia Barker Barton, Cynthia Atkins, Katie Moulton, Yael Goldstein Love, Julia Lisella

Winter 2023 (link to website)

Suzanne Frischkorn, Kim Addonizio, Thomas McNeely, Jenna Le, Sarah Bridgins, Lee Matthew Goldberg, Lise Hanes, Dr. Paula Perez, Michael Mark, Maya Williams, Hannah Sward, Caitlin Avery, Carla Swartz, Stacy TenHouton, Donna Spruijt-Metz, Morgan Baker

Autumn 2022 (link to website) 

Jonathan Papernick, A.K. Small, Aaron Tillman, David Rockland, Kimberly Ann Priest, Sain Griffiths, Harris Gardner, Lisa Taylor, Michael Keith, Jim Shepard, Zach VandeZande, Rusty Barnes, Daniel Nester. Kurk Lovelace (reading from Annemarie O'Connell's book), and Nina Shope

Spring/Summer 2022 (link to website) 

Sara Lippmann, Robin McLean, Gregory Orr, Rich Murphy, Diane Suess, Ron Tanner, Aleathea Drehmer, Christina Adams, Sharon Applegate Greenwald, Lucas Scheelk, 

Joseph Milosch, Barbara Legere, Ellene Glenn Moore, Vincent Cellucci and Chris Shipman

Winter 2022

Renuka Raghaven, Jessica Cuello, Jen Knox, Daniel Biegelson, Alison Stine, 

John Rosenthal, Peter Crowley, Maggie Doherty, Erin Khar, Elan Barnehama, 

Marguerite Guzman Bouvard

Autumn 2021

DeMisty Bellinger, Cheryl Pappas, Matt Bell, Michael Keith, Gloria Mindock, 

Molly Gaudry, CD Collins, Kevin Prufer, Beth Robinson/Chris Joseph, Alina Stefanuscu, Meg Smith, Gregory Wolos, Damian Dressic, Jason Wright, Blake Butler 

Summer 2021

Natalie Brobin Bonfig, John Domini, Anna VQ Ross, Rachel Yoder

Spring 2021

Sandra Simonds, George Wallace, Caroline Levitt, Charles Coe, Susan Henderson, 

Major Jackson, Kara Vernor, Meredith Goldstein, Kimberly Ann Priest, Joanna Rakoff

Winter 2021

Rick Moody , Laurette Folk, Mark Saba, Sarah Anne Johnson, 

Josh Barkan/ Jennifer Haigh, Keetje Kuipers, January O'Neil,  Elle Nash, 

Danielle Zaccagnino, Marty Beckerman, Nathan Graziano , Steven Cramer

Autumn 2020

Carly Israel, Daphne Kalotay, Ryan Ridge, Marge Piercy, Kerry Beth Neville, 

Yuyutsu Sharma, Chris Joseph, Elizabeth Gordon McKim, Diana Spechler, 

Jonathan Escoffrey, Dewitt Henry, Brian Sonia-Wallace, Rebecca Fishow,

 Marguerite Bouvard, Pamela Painter, Kim Chinquee, Jessica Keener, Amy King

Virtual Dire Literary Series This Summer----Here comes the Summer (schedule)

 

June

5  Elizabeth Hazen

19:  Bob Walicki

July

17 Andy Siditsky

25:  Michael Ansara

August

7.    Michael Maritone

21:  Hosho McCreesh 

October 23, Susan Michele

Review of the #1 new release, Shadows of the Seen, seen in the Somerville Times (PLUS links to all things Seen)

 Timothy Gager has long been a fixture in Boston’s literary underground – a prolific writer, spoken-word regular, and a familiar face to anyone who’s spent time at the intersection of art and recovery in New England. With Shadows of the Seen, his latest and most ambitious novel to date, Gager steps fully into the national conversation with a work that confronts the psychic aftershocks of gun violence, addiction, and political hypocrisy in modern-day America.

Set in New Jersey and Tennessee, Shadows of the Seen follows four interwoven characters whose lives are quietly unraveling. The book opens with Candace, a politician whose well-curated image is shaken after a mass shooting forces her to reckon with both her platform and her past. Her storyline anchors the book, providing a moral throughline for a novel more interested in psychological depth than linear plot.

Gager, who has written candidly about his own struggles with depression and substance use, brings a clinician’s precision and a poet’s empathy into his work. Nowhere is that more evident than in the character of Lucky – a man ravaged by addiction and brain lesions, whose purpose reads not as hopelessness, but as unfiltered honesty. His chapters are not easy to read, but they are among the most affecting.

There’s also Peter, whose blackouts and panic attacks suggest a life teetering on the edge of violence. His sections simmer with dread, not because he’s a threat, but because Gager so effectively captures the experience of mental illness from the inside out – confused, circular, and terrifyingly isolating. Then there’s Bobby-Joe, a political opportunist, husband of Candace, whose self-interest serves as a foil to Candace’s late-breaking conscience. Though less nuanced than the others, he adds a necessary bite of satire to a book heavy with emotional weight.

This is not a novel that traffics in silver linings. Gager doesn’t resolve trauma, he dissects it. The structure is fragmented, the tone often bleak, and the emotional realism unflinching. That can make for a difficult read– but it’s also what makes the book feel honest. Shadows of the Seen doesn’t sensationalize mental illness or addiction; it renders them with the flat affect of lived experience.

At times, Gager’s reach exceeds his grasp. The political themes, while timely, are occasionally over-explained, and the multiple narrative voices don’t always maintain the same level of complexity. But when the novel is at its best– which is often – it pierces. The writing is sharp, direct, and deeply felt.

For readers familiar with Gager’s poetry or his personal essays, Shadows of the Seen will feel like a culmination– an artist applying his hard-won insight to fiction that dares to look at what most of us try to avoid. For new readers, it’s a bracing introduction to a voice that doesn’t flinch. In a literary market full of polished detachment, Timothy Gager is doing something riskier: he’s telling the truth, no matter how raw it is.

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ALL THINGS SEEN

Nov 2024-Talking about Shadows of the Seen for the first time in WWAF Podcast. 

January 2025-Preview and taking a deep dive into Shadows of the Seen

March 17, 2025-Interview with Briar House Writes, and I talk about, read from book at 11:00 mark

March 23, 2025-Why Shadows of the Seen is relevant

April 15, 2025-Press release for Shadows of the Seen

May 1, 2025-The feeling when the author copies arrive

May 7, 2025-Info on Seamus McGraw who wrote the forward

May 14, 2025: Official Release Date

May 18, 2025-Fact checking Shadows of the Seen

Fact Checking of Shadows of the Seen

If you are so intrigued, please pick up a copy or contact me for a signed version of the hard cover or paperback. 

 Shadows of the Seen is not anti-gun, anti-ownership  anti-Second Amendment and anti-America

The book is neither pro or anti-gun. 

In general, guns are a vehicle in shooting people, that's why they were invented, no matter what you think.  The book doesn't mention forming of any militias, so that covers that, but it does cover the rally behind that Amendment. The book does mention how easy it is to get hands on powerful weapons, legally or illegally and how politicians ramp up their influence and are paid by gun lobbyists--(who turn around feed us information about guns being "taken away," and how more arming of teachers, or good guys can prevent all of this. It can't--check the facts.)

Shadows of the Seen puts politicians, especially conservatives in a bad light. 

The book holds party-line platforms, for the most part that Republicans are pro-gun, anti-choice, and Democrats and anti-gun, pro-choice. 

Shadows of the Seen  takes a stand about which comes first the chicken (people) or the egg (the guns)

Neither. The book covers both, and the manipulation of those issues. 

Moving to non-fiction: Let's take on Mental Health in the USA. People, because of some serious issues should never have access to guns, but here's the rub in the USA. Mental Health services for those in serious need. 

Why?

Mostly because insurance companies don't want to pay for it. Insurance, if you have it, are looking to treat and discharge care or therapy services. Mental Health is all based on the prescription model and people either a) quit or don't take their medications correctly, b) are on the wrong medications which they take blindly because their psychiatrist told them to, and don't try more therapeutic ones because they don't know any better. The psychiatrist are the "golden Gods." On the other hand will only change things up if people self-report, and if they are not being treated in the best way, their self-reporting is unreliable. 

As for the guns, the manipulation is in that it's believed to be anti-American to not have them. Period.  This also covers the the "American hating" folks that object semi-automatic weapons, which no one really needs.  The problem is about all of the above, people, figure heads, manipulation, need for guns. One of the biggest manipulations in history was pre-political, the Bernard Goetz case, who shot his perceived assailants in the back.  

This case is covered  in the Netflix series, Trail by Media, Episode 2: The NRA helped fund his defense because it opened a window for their agenda. In fact, the NRA was sued afterward for misleading and fraudulent fund-raising drive to pardon the convicted Goetz,

     The National Rifle Association were among the groups that attempted to brand him as a folk hero. Goetz told investigators that he'd bought a gun in Florida and illegally transported it to New York City after he was violently mugged by three teens four years before the subway shooting, and had applied for a New York gun permit as a result but was rejected. This led the NRA to openly support Goetz, raising money for him and asking the governor to pardon him, according to a 1987 Los Angeles Times report. They used Goetz as a poster boy as they advocated for looser gun laws in New York City.   

     Goetz's vigilante hero persona may have helped him at the trial for the shooting. A mostly white jury acquitted Goetz of attempted murder and first-degree assault charges. However, public perception began to turn after an interrogation video was released, which revealed Goetz speaking callously about the shooting and his desire to kill the teenagers.

“I wanted to kill those guys,” he told investigators. “I wanted to maim those guys.”

He claimed to have shot one of the teens more than once because he thought he didn’t seem hurt enough the first time. He was convicted only of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree for carrying an unlicensed weapon in a public place and served just eight months.

 

Accused "subway vigilante" Bernhard Goetz, who shot four young black men whom he believed were intent on robbing him on the subway, is surrounded by newsmen in New York, 1987. Photo

 Shadows of the Seen  is attempting to change the minds of people that aren't on the same side of this issue as the author.

No. Shadows of the Seen is a book of fiction, a novel that looks at the gun issue from many sides. The story is driven through the narrative of the three main characters, 1) a politician who is internally liberal but runs on conservative values. 2) A mass shooter. 3) A reluctant hero who breaks up a mass shooter for unconventional reasons. 

The hook?

The mass shooter and reluctant hero are not revealed until the end. 

Officially Released : Shadows of the Seen

info on the book     review of the book

        

 

To get this important book in your hands , below are the many  options for on-line purchase. Also your favorite local independent bookstore is a great option and they can order it 

(also purchasing bookshop.org benefits those small businesses)

Of course, if you want a signed copy, contact me