Bell Casting

In Bell Casting’s  27 poems, Patrick L. Cronin honors the simple beauty of growing up and living in America’s small towns between 1950 and 2000. Bell Casting is a homage to the power of a strong sense of community to “sweeten the tone” of a town’s most treasured products, its own people.


An earlier, printed version of this poetry chapbook originally appeared shortly after the September 11 Attacks of 2001, as a Special Winterfest Edition for the people of Whitman (MA) as they came together to celebrate their love for their town. Bell Casting draws from the New England town’s history as a place where great church bells were created during the time of the American Revolution.  Whenever a new bell was cast, the villagers would come out to toss their silver coins into the molten metal, which gave each bell a distinctive, sweeter tone.