MARGO LOCKWOOD

1939 - 2021

LOCKWOOD, Margo (Nyhan) Died peacefully after a short illness on January 10, 2021 surrounded by her loving family. A lifelong resident of Brookline, she was active in the Boston poetry world for 60 years. In December, poets Eileen Myles and Fanny Howe conferred on her The Friend of the Word Award as part of The Boston Originals Series at The Woodberry Poetry Room at Harvard University. A member of New England Poetry Society and The Poetry Society of America, Lockwood held a Wednesday evening poetry workshop at her kitchen table for decades. The Archives of the Smithsonian interviewed her in 1992 for "Arts in America," as did Christopher Lydon for the radio program, "Open Source." She also appears in the PBS documentary "The Irish in America." About her work, Boston poet Fanny Howe wrote: "Margo Lockwood is Catholic, mystical, modest, brilliant, biting and agnostic. She has the racing brain of genius common to the Irish people and seems to know everything. I count her among one of the great Boston poets. She captures the strange and unnamable quality of this wayside city." She was born Margaret Rose Nyhan in Boston on January 16, 1939 and grew up in Brookline's Whiskey Point neighborhood. She attended St. Mary's Grammar and graduated from Holy Cross Academy on a full scholarship. Lockwood received a B.A. in English, magna cum laude from UMass Boston in 1973 after having studied previously at Northeastern University and Bridgewater State College. In 1960 she married artist George Lockwood from Brooklyn, NY with whom she founded Impressions Workshop, a stone lithography atelier on Stanhope Street in Boston's Back Bay. The studio was instrumental in reviving the art of stone lithography, woodcut, engraving and broadsides, working with such renowned artists as Leonard Baskin, and the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti. In addition, Margo and her husband were followers of The Gurdjieff Movement and hosted weekly meetings at their Stanhope Street workshop. In 1966 they moved to Pembroke, MA where they set up a large printing workshop and in 1968 helped to found The Pembroke Arts Festival. After her husband's sudden death in 1969, Lockwood moved their four young children back to Brookline. In 1973, she moved her family to Dublin, Ireland for one year to explore the culture. She returned to Ireland again in 1981 for another year of exploration. For 12 years she owned and operated The Horse in the Attic Bookshop, a used and rare bookstore located in Brookline Village. Constantly writing, she published many books of poetry: Temper (1979) and Black Dog (1986), both with Alice James Books, Eight Poems (1982) Menhaden Press, Bare Elegy (1980) Janus Press, Left Handed Happiness (1987) Dirty Dish Press, and More Than I Want To (2009) with Pressed Wafer. She was a regular contributor to the literary journal, Ploughshares, and more recently to an anthology Poems About Sculpture (2016) Knopf. She taught poetry and The I Ching at The Cambridge Center for Adult Education. Lockwood leaves her four children, all from Brookline: James Lockwood and his wife Kate Risse, Jennifer Lockwood and her husband Brendan Curtis, Juliet Lockwood, and Jonathan Lockwood and his wife Kirsten Olson. She leaves her nine grandchildren: Isabelle, Sophia, Spencer, Leopold, Claire, Benjamin, Camille, Nicholas, and Nathaniel, and many nieces and nephews. She also leaves Isabelle's father, Peter Stuehler. In addition to her husband, Lockwood was predeceased by her brother David Nyhan, the Boston Globe columnist. She is survived by her brothers Christopher Nyhan, and wife Carmela Palanda of Portland, ME and John Nyhan and his wife Connie Williams of Indian Wells, CA, and David Nyhans wife, Olivia Hill Nyhan. Due to the pandemic, no Services are scheduled. A Memorial will be held in the fall. Donations in her name can be made to Boston Reuse Center, 88 Terrace St., Boston, MA 02120 or to your favorite charity.

View the online memorial for Margo (Nyhan) LOCKWOOD