Orland poets’ collaborative seeks Maine voices

ORLAND – Spirit Words. “Home Words.” The names are synonymous with poetry. Together, since 1998, they have sponsored a Poetry Fest during H.O.M.E. Inc.’s Craft Fair. This year’s event is set for 1 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 16, in the chapel at H.O.M.E., Route 1 in Orland.

Spirit Words is a Maine poets’ collaborative founded to locate and honor Maine’s many voices. “Home Words” is the title of the booklet published each year after the poetry festival, which contains the poems read during the festival.

Among the poets who have read in past years are the late Minnie Bowden, George Thunderbird, Linda Swift, Sharon Bray and Pat Ranzoni.

Some who attend the festival, held in H.O.M.E.’s chapel in Orland, come not to read but to listen and talk. Some make up a poem on the spot and recite it when their turn comes – usually people read or recite very informally, sitting in a circle.

Visitors are struck by the variety of people and poetry they find at the festival.

“It’s the only place I can think of where people come together across barriers of class and age, politics and culture, with views that often clash, and yet everyone listens respectfully,” said Pat Ranzoni of Bucksport.

Karen Saum of Bucksport, who organizes the poetry festival, hopes that this year some of her students from a creative writing class in the Hancock County Jail will attend.

“Some of my students wrote amazing poetry,” Saum said. “I invited them to come to read, but I’m afraid they’ll be too busy, or afraid or have forgotten. I hope not, because their poems would be a treat for everyone, and I think they’d be surprised by how people receive them.”

“I know a lot of poets say their poems aren’t good enough. I say, ‘Good enough for what?’ We all love to hear what people are thinking and writing,” Said Ralph Grimes of Stockton Springs.

Every year a booklet of all the poems read the preceding year is published and is available at BookStacks in Bucksport and the H.O.M.E. craft store. To learn more about the Poetry Fest, call 469-7961.