Poetry on Windows: A thank-you to the merchants, libraries and opera houses
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
Caitlin
Izzy
Hazel
Olivia
Eliza
Annabelle
Mirabelle
Iris
Clementine
Ruby
Libby
Oakley
Elisha
Mado
Isla
Eliza
Soren
Colter
Arianna
Ellie
Maggie
Izzy
Payton
Abby B.
Until next spring,
Elphie Owen, of Camden, is a board member of Stewardship Education Alliance