Cape Cod Light

Cape Cod Light, by Michael Hattersley, was published in October 1998, and was dedicated to his family. He was my uncle.

Michael Elkins Hattersley grew up an army brat in the United States and Europe. He attended Swarthmore College, and received his doctorate from Yale University in 1976. During this period he took off a year and backpacked around the world. Michael taught English Literature, Modern Poetry, and Communication, including serving as Course Head of Management Communication at the Harvard Business School. He was a Fellow of both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. His poems, essays, and reviews appeared in Poetry, Poetry Northwest, Blue Unicorn, Poet and Critic, Stone Country, Provincetown Poets, Bay Windows (now The Rainbow Times), and The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review (now the Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide).

Michael in his favorite chair in Provincetown.

In this series of posts, I explore each poem in the order it appears in the book, prefaced with possibly relevant details of Michael’s life and Cape Cod. They make the most sense when read in order.

  1. Thanks But I’m
  2. Body Knowledge
  3. Stepping Across the Bay
  4. The Edge
  5. Key West in July With a Nod
  6. The Angel in the Streets
  7. Death Watch
  8. False Clues
  9. Illustration
  10. Disco Dancing
  11. The Loved One
  12. Like the Unfinished Souls of da Vinci’s Adoration
  13. Parkway
  14. Changing in Place
  15. How It Returned: Tripping In Vinnie’s Garden
  16. David’s Day
  17. Provincetown, December 5, 5:00 A.M.
  18. Facing the Season
  19. Lady
  20. Music Men
  21. Pink Floyd Played Berlin
  22. How You’ve Helped Me Grow
  23. Our Loss
  24. Taking the Century By the Throat
  25. Falling In Love Again
  26. Snapping the Bars
  27. Happening to See You Again
  28. In Sight of It
  29. David’s Dead
  30. America’s Edge: Herring Cove
  31. Bournemouth, England
  32. Cape Cod Light

In the acknowledgements of Cape Cod Light, Michael thanks Bret Duback, David Atkinson, Jim Sardonis, John Andert, and Elwood Van Ness Hattersley for contributing photographs or artwork to Cape Cod Light (many of those appear in the links above); Jennifer DiMarco, Cris Newport, Maxwell Chapleau, and Rudy Kikel for helping to make the book possible; Robert Kent for his perfect friendship and wise advise, and Rich Bernstein.