A Poetry Gathering with Maria Gillan and Lisa Coll Nicolaou

Join lovers of poetry at the Maurice M. Pine Public Library in Fair Lawn, NJ on Sunday, September 27, at 3 pm for "A Poetry Gathering" with poets Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Lisa Coll Nicolaou.

Maria Mazziotti Gillan is a recipient of the 2014 George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature from AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs), the 2011 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award from Poets & Writers, and the 2008 American Book Award for her book, All That Lies Between Us. She is the founder of the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College in Paterson, NJ, and served as its Executive Director until her retirement in 2026. Maria has published more than two dozen books of and about poetry. With her daughter Jennifer, she is co-editor of four poetry anthologies. Her newest poetry collection is When the Stars Were Still Visible (2021). Other recent publications are the poetry and photography collection, Paterson Light and Shadow, and the poetry collections What Blooms in Winter and The Girls in the Chartreuse Jackets, a pairing of her poems with her paintings. Maria's artist website is MariaMazziottiGillan.com and her poetry website is MariaGillan.com.

Lisa Coll Nicolaou won the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award in 2016, and in 2023 was named a finalist in the Laura Boss Narrative Poetry Book Award. Lisa is the coordinator of the Theater and Poetry Project through the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College, which brings poets and live theater to the students of Paterson, NJ. Her first book, Something Whole From Something Broken, was published by Stephen F. Austin Press in 2025. Lisa is honored to serve as the first poet laureate of Fair Lawn, NJ. 

Poem: Love Poem To My Husband Of Thirty-one Years

Love Poem To My Husband Of Thirty-one Years

 I watch you walk up our front path, 

the entire right side of your body, 

stiff and unbending, your leg, 

dragging on the ground, 

your arm not moving. 

Six different times you ask me 

the date of our daughter's wedding, 

seem surprised each time, 

forget who called, though you can name 

obscure desert animals, 

and every detail of events 

that took place in 3 B.C. 

You complain now of pain 

in your muscles, of swimming at the Y 

where a 76-year-old man tells you 

you swim too slowly. 

I imagine a world in which 

you cannot move.

Most days, I force myself to look 

only into the past; 

remember you, singing 

and playing your guitar: "Black, 

black is the color of my true love's hair," 

you sang, and each time you came into a room 

how my love for you caught in my throat, 

how handsome you were, how strong 

and muscular, how the sun 

lit your blond hair.

Now I pretend not to notice 

the trouble you have buttoning 

your shirt, and yes, I am terrified 

and no, I cannot tell you.

The future is a murky lake. 

I am afraid of the monsters 

who wait just below its surface. 

Even in our mahogany bed, I am not safe. 

Each day, I swim toward 

everything I didn't want to know.

     Maria Mazziotti Gillan

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Maria Mazziotti Gillan's newest poetry collection is When the Stars Were Still Visible (2021). Other recent publications are the poetry and photography collection, Paterson Light and Shadow, and the poetry collections What Blooms in Winter and The Girls in the Chartreuse Jackets, a pairing of her poems with her paintings.
Maria's artist website is MariaMazziottiGillan.com and her poetry website is MariaGillan.com.

Maria Mazziotti Gillan on Rattlecast

Rattlecast 105 featured Maria Mazziotti Gillan, a frequent contributor to Rattle and interviewee of issue #46.  

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Maria Mazziotti Gillan's newest poetry collection is When the Stars Were Still Visible (2021). Other recent publications are the poetry and photography collection, Paterson Light and Shadow, and the poetry collections What Blooms in Winter and The Girls in the Chartreuse Jackets, a pairing of her poems with her paintings.
Maria's artist website is MariaMazziottiGillan.com and her poetry website is MariaGillan.com.

Maria Gillan's 'What Blooms in Winter' and the Patterns of Memory

What Blooms in Winter is Maria Mazziotti Gillan's 2016 collection that was widely praised by critics and poets for its "unsparing honesty" and its ability to find beauty in the hardships of aging, grief, and the immigrant experience. 

 

Critics consistently highlight the emotional depth of the collection, noting that Gillan’s work stands apart from the often abstract nature of contemporary academic poetry. 

Grace Cavalieri (Washington Independent Review of Books): "I’ll read this book if ever I forget the purpose of poetry—if ever I start believing it’s only about the adornment of language. This is the stuff that made humankind want to speak, to write."

 

Kenneth Scambray (L'Italo Americano): "What has always distinguished her poetry... is her unsparing honesty in her confrontation of some of the most intimate details of family life... her poetry has always taken great risks."

This collection is structured as a narrative journey through time. It juxtaposes the "cold-water flats" of the 1950s with the "empty house" of the present.

 

In Maria Mazziotti Gillan’s collection, the "blooms in winter" are both a literal image of resilient nature and a metaphor for the strength found in the later stages of life. She suggests that the most beautiful things—memory, gratitude, and a sense of self—often only fully "bloom" when the easier seasons of youth have passed, and the "ground is hard."

The "Winter" of the title refers to the later stages of life, widowhood, and physical decline, but the "Blooms" are the "daily miracles" Gillan identifies, such as the ability to hold a pen, a phone call from a child, or the sensory memories of a mother’s starched linens.

She argues that we only learn true gratitude when we "bloom" through these limitations.

 

"The Lace Tablecloth and the Patterns of Memory" is a poem that uses physical objects as "anchors" for her memories. The poem centers on a trunk full of linens and lace that Gillan's mother brought from Italy. These handcrafted items represent her pride, artistic skill, and the culture she carried with her.

Her mother's dedication is shown through her penny-saving from a 25-cent-an-hour factory job in Paterson, in order to buy linens. She would also take the tablecloths home after family holidays to wash and iron them, returning them pristine.

 

The lace acts as a physical manifestation of memory. Decades later, the memories of eating as a family on these tablecloths serve as an enduring symbol of the speaker's roots and of her mother's deep, silent love. 

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Maria Mazziotti Gillan's newest poetry collection is When the Stars Were Still Visible (2021). Other recent publications are the poetry and photography collection, Paterson Light and Shadow, and the poetry collections What Blooms in Winter and The Girls in the Chartreuse Jackets, a pairing of her poems with her paintings.
Maria's artist website is MariaMazziottiGillan.com and her poetry website is MariaGillan.com.