Say the word, and I shall be healed

Chatting with Boston poet Linda Carney-Goodrich about her debut collection, "Dot Girl."

I met poet Linda Carney-Goodrich in the 1990s in a cabaret group called the Performance Cult. Now, “Dot Girl,” Linda’s first book of poetry is coming out in early March from Nixes Mate.

The Performance Cult featured never-before-seen 10-minute solos. As a performance artist, Linda is a force. She’s magnetic on stage. Back in those days, her pieces were character-driven, physical, and darkly comic, and she has lost nothing of that charisma – I recommend seeing her read her poems in person. She’ll take part in the Third Thursdays Poetry reading at Brookline Booksmith on March 21; the book launch for “Dot Girl” is March 23 at the Menino Arts Center in Hyde Park.

“Dot Girl” is a gut punch. The book is like a lyrical memoir wrestling with a traumatic past. Linda grew up Catholic in 1970s Dorchester, Massachusetts, the ninth of 10 children. Her father drank. Financially, they scraped by. There was abuse in the family. There was abuse in the church. Nobody said a word.

Last week, Linda and I met over Zoom to chat about “Dot Girl,” in which she gives shape to her story in verse. Our recorded interview is below. Tune in, and you’ll find she is wise, fiery, and generous.

The poems offer clear-eyed, unsentimental memories. Religious doctrine was (and still often is) seared like a hot brand into the tender souls of young Catholic children. In the Catholic Mass, the congregation prays, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” Attending Mass as a girl, Linda took on that unworthiness. In “The Body Believes III,” she writes:

Each Night My Mother
hands me a magnifying glass
We examine my sins like fingerprints
We count them like the stars