In January, I received an email from Larry Bertram, inviting me to speak at The Bard Owl Café. It’s a poetry club that meets at the Merrimac Council on Aging on the third Tuesday of the month at 1:30 p.m., and brings together local poets like Chris and Peter Bryant, a couple dedicated to the legacy of John Greenleaf Whittier, as well as fans of Robert Frost, Yeats, Dickinson, and Rhina Espaillat.

But beyond their love of poetry, they are characters in their own right. You can see in Chris’s eyes that she breathes life into every poem she recites. Peter, with his flowing white beard and English accent, has a naturally charming and delightful way of delivering prose.

The group was inspired by John Burciaga’s Poetry and Pizza program with the Newburyport’s Council on Aging. Merrimac’s program is supported by COA Executive Director Brienne Walsh, and program director Denise Gilman. The theme for February was “Have a Heart,” and I was invited to share my journey of receiving a heart transplant. I was honored to speak, though I’m not sure anyone found more in that lecture than I.

Larry opened the meeting with two songs: “Have a Heart” by Bonnie Raitt and “He Went to Paris” by Jimmy Buffett (Bob Dylan’s favorite poet). After I spoke, a poem by Charles Bukowski, “The Laughing Heart,” played via YouTube in a reading by Tom Waits. Amy Vander Els, who owns a jewelry and gift shop called “a” on the second floor at 9 Water St. in Amesbury, gave each attendee a beautiful card featuring the poem in its original typeset, shaped like a heart.

Then came the words that changed my life:

“Your life is your life—don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.”

At certain points in our lives, the pressures of career, family, and relationships weigh on us, forcing us to submit—to let go of our joy, our passion, our dreams.

Bukowski’s words continued:

“Be on the watch. There are ways out. There is light somewhere. It may not be much light, but it beats the darkness.”

I had found myself at The Bard Owl Café, a place of light, during a moment of darkness. And there we were, meditating on my favorite subject: the heart. Larry and his partners had my full attention.

“Be on the watch. The gods will offer you chances. Know them. Take them.”

I attend far too many meetings each year, and I must admit, I’ve grown jaded over time. Is it fair to say I’ve been clubbed into dank submission? But had The Bard Owl Café truly captured my attention? Absolutely. It felt like a song you play on repeat, dissecting every lyric. Like a movie you never want to end. A television series you want to binge.

And then, Bukowski hit me again.

“You can’t beat death, but you can beat death in life, sometimes.”

Wait! Bukowski knows me? The death of our passion, our joy, our dreams can be beaten? The older we get, the harder it is to have our eyes opened. I have, quite literally, beaten death, by the miracle of transplant technology. But have I beaten the kind of death that kills the soul?

“And the more often you learn to do it, the more light there will be.”

You mean there’s more? Is this a cheat code for life?

The poem ends with:

“Your life is your life. Know it while you have it. You are marvelous. The gods wait to delight in you.”

We have a responsibility to keep fighting. We are not alone. If we push further, resisting the death of our passion, joy, and dreams, the gods will delight in us.

In a room of 30 or so strangers, most of whom I had never met before, except for Patti Olds, my life was changed.

I was inspired. I dove into Bukowski’s work, sending “The Laughing Heart” to my children and closest friends. I also fell in love with Tom Waits and started listening to his albums. If you get a chance, listen to I Hope I Don’t Fall in Love with You, a song about protecting yourself from love because of the pain that comes with it. It speaks to the challenges love brings, the work it requires, and the vulnerability it demands. But in the end, we have no real power over what our hearts want.

Eager to share my experience, I scheduled a breakfast with Larry at Aroma Joe’s in Salisbury, a spot that sponsors snacks and coffee for The Bard Owl Café, by the way the name came about based on a poem Larry wrote called Barred Owl.

Larry is quite an interesting person. He is the only person I know who has hit a hole-in-one on the eighth hole at Amesbury Country Club, our favorite course. He grew up in Falls Church, Virginia near D.C., was a college athlete, and is also a poet and a writer. I am fully convinced that Larry can do anything. A retired software professional, he is deeply in love with his wife, and we share so many hobbies.

I started our conversation by thanking him for changing my life. I shared everything I had explored in the week between meeting him at the Merrimac Council on Aging and our breakfast. I told him about my need to fall in love with my subjects in order to tell their stories, something he completely understood. Larry is a kindred spirit.

I also shared that I had been invited by James Russell, the executive director of the Custom House Maritime Museum, to give a lecture on one of the most important figures in American history you’ve probably never heard of, Benjamin Franklin Butler. Without hesitation, Larry agreed to team up with me to bring this opportunity to life.

In less than a week of knowing each other, we had become partners. We dove into everything about Ben Butler. I took on the Amesbury, Newburyport, and Salisbury libraries, while Larry tackled Merrimac, Haverhill, and the Pollard Library in Lowell. We read the same biography and sifted through a collection of correspondence letters.

Butler lived a full and adventurous life. He was a complicated man whom history has not given his rightful honors. Though noisy and boastful, he played a vital role in the emancipation and survival of enslaved people during and after the Civil War. He authored the first law to free slaves and created the first civil rights laws to protect freed Black Americans after the war. The very qualities that made him a great human were also the ones his opponents used to vilify him.

Larry and I will be telling his story at the Custom House’s First Friday lLecture on June 6, with a reception at 5:30 p.m. with the lecture beginning at 6:30 p.m. I promise it will be an engaging and entertaining evening.

To get tickets, please visit https://customhousemaritimemuseum.org.

The Bard Owl Café and the poems about having a heart reminded me of how important it is to protect your soul from what this world can do to it. It wants to beat you into dank submission. In the poem “The Barred Owl” Larry questions why the elusive beast gave him the opportunity to experience him. “Had he been out there all night? Waiting just for me. To tell me only recognition matters, that the rest’s just foolery.” My guess is that the creature was magnetized by Larry’s gravity. I’m glad to be in his orbit also.

“Dinner Date” is a series of stories written by Salisbury resident C.J. Fitzwater about the places and people he meets for dinner. If you are interested in meeting, eating and telling your story, send him an email at cfitzwater@ymail.com.