letter to the editor

Mon, 07/22/2024 - 11:30am

Elphie Owen

Poetry on Windows, presented by Stewardship Education Alliance, sponsored by Youth Arts and the Bisbee Foundation, and in partnership with the Camden Festival of Poetry, has just wrapped up its fifth year in downtown Camden, Rockport and Lincolnville. Scribes calligraphed poems written by students at the Camden-Rockport Middle School, Camden Hills Regional High School, Hope Elementary School, and Lincolnville Central School on windows of stores and public buildings.

While poetry is the medium, the message that Poetry on Windows seeks to deliver is about our natural environment. Stewardship Education Alliance encourages us all in a myriad of ways to be good stewards of our watersheds including through Poetry on Windows.

For the fifth year, the merchants in these towns have been fabulously supportive of this community event. Their windows are precious spaces and yet they allow the poems to occupy a portion of that space for over a month. All the while they are along for the ride as the rains do as they wish with the ink and scribes rush to repair the smudges, a level of patience our committee greatly appreciates. Their obvious enthusiasm for the poems and the young poets, excitement and annual welcome help make this a joyous community project.

If you have enjoyed Poetry on Windows please thank the merchants and people at our libraries and opera houses including:

Bagel Café

Blue Jay

Camden Opera House

Carver Hill Gallery

Cashmere Goat

Dot’s Market

Drakes Corner Store

Fat Face

First National Bank

French and Brawn

Glendarragh Lavendar

Goods

Mixed Greens

Hearth and Harrow

Hundred Acres

Laugh Loud, Smile Big

Leonards

Leslie Curtis Designs

Lincolnville General store

Maine Seaside Treasures

Maine Sport Outfitters

Once a Tree

Owl and Turtle Bookstore

First Fig

Page Gallery

Planet Toys

Rockport Blueprint.

Rockport Public Library

Serendipity Fine Consignment

The Smiling Cow

Symmetree Base Camp

Topo Gallery and Goods

Zoot Coffee

Mosaic Restaurant

Western Auto

Other merchants were eager for a poem but have windows that were too small for any of this year’s contributions: Ralston Gallery and Camden Public Library.

Thanks are also due to our game and talented scribes. There are moments when folks jump in to scribe in times of great need.

In particular, Morgan Cafferatta scurried down to scribe a window just minutes before our poetry walk on May 18, a poem whose scribe had a conflict with the timing to get it done, and thereby saved a 10-year-old from some terrible disappointment.

These simple heroics are second nature to this wonderful committee of scribes. Others volunteer to re-scribe following rainstorms. All of them take time before and after work or on a weekend to work their magic.

Amy Rollins

Kisha Marsh

Mark Burrows

Kirsten Surbey

Keenan Boscoe

Jane Babbitt

Morgan Cafferata

Jeffrey Lewis

Michelle O'Dwyer

Susan Dorr

Wayne Ruesswick

Natalie Ward

Maya Stein

Abbie Read

Liz Kalloch

Calder Gladstone

Kris Federle

Cathy Straka

Ruby Sowder

Emily Seymour

Cathy Straka

Maureen Egan

Wendy Zwecker

Mark Burrows

Chris Tofani

Rockport Blueprint staff

Auren Teel

Maggie Churchill

Dan Sowder

Steven Baer

Finally, Stewardship Education Alliance would like to thank our poets and their teachers. Several participants of the Camden Festival of Poetry who were visiting from far away (Virginia, Vermont, Pennsylvania) enjoyed a poetry walk on the morning of May 18. They commented that poetry was not taught in their local schools. Each of them voiced deep appreciation for this expression of our district teachers and their ability in and openness to teaching poetry.

Those teachers are Jen Thorn, Hope Elementary; Jessie Odgren and Heather Butler, Camden-Rockport Middle School; Jane Chamberlain, Camden Hills Regional High School; and Dawn Emery, Lincolnville Central School.

And, as always, a big shout out to the poets with the hope that this project encourages their writing and their love and stewardship of our natural world.

Freya

Matyáš

Cassie

Chloe

Evelyn

Corynn

Eben

Tristan

Hayden

Dorothy

Ceri

lila