Poetic

In honor of National Poetry Month, the Press Herald published an article about the poetry scene in Maine. What's remarkable, though, is the collection of audible poems that accompany the article.

Steve Luttrell, the founder and publishing editor of The Cafe Review, reads "Landscape of Machines." Annie Finch, the Program Director of the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine reads "A Letter for Emily Dickinson." Betsy Sholl, the Maine Poet Laureate, reads the first part of Seamus Heaney's "Seeing Things." Michael Macklin, reads "How It Dawns On Us." Gil Helmick reads "The Marriage of the Future to the Moment" and "The Evolution of Apocalypse." Brianna Crusan reads "Still Standing." Juba Zaki reads (or, more accurately, spits) a slammed poem. And Jake Wortell reads "Betty."

Also noteworthy is the Westbrook-based Moon Pie Press, a Maine printing press that publishes Maine poets, including Westbrook's Alice N. Persons (hear Garrison Keillor read Persons's "Stealing Lilacs" on the May 16, 2007 edition "The Writer's Almanac"), Nancy A. Henry (hear Keillor read Henry's "Keys" on the September 5, 2007 edition of "The Writer's Almanac"), and Edward J. Rielly.

Check out Moon Pie's catalog.

- John C.L. Morgan