Paul Marion is the author of Union River: Poems and Sketches and editor of Jack Kerouac's early writing, Atop an Underwood. His book Mill Power documents the twentieth-century revival of the iconic factory city where he was born, Lowell, Mass. His recent work has appeared in So It Goes, Café Review, SpoKe Seven, and PoetsReadingtheNews.com. He lives in the Merrimack River Valley of Massachusetts. 

Opening with a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Lockdown Letters & Other Poems ranges near and far in the author's catalogue. While spared the devastating effects of the disease, he offers a view of the way daily life changes and new risks are confronted as people try to maintain routines. The book shifts to work inspired by travel—local, global, and beyond—routes giving rise to memorable observations and insights. More place poems and a cycle of sports pieces round out the volume, with its theme of home-and-away.  

Praise for Paul Marion's Union River: Poems and Sketches (2017) 

"Marion gets the expansiveness, the inclusiveness, the diversity, the eclecticism, and the influence of our country . . . .  he paints it all with his artful choice of words." 

—Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene 

 "Reading Union River, you are reminded why poems matter. When done right they are keys to locks we didn't know could be opened, throwing wide windows and doors that lead us to places we never thought we'd go." 

—Merrimack Valley Magazine 

"Paul Marion's Union River is a worthy inclusion in the great American songbook . . . . These are fine poems and damned good stories." 

—Today's Book of Poetry (Canada)