These poems capture Maine from the coast to the Allagash

Peter Kilgore obviously loved Maine, from our coastal islands to the Allagash River in the north woods. Quarry, The Collected Poems of Peter Kilgore, really capture his Maine – and my Maine too.

I really must thank North Country Press for publishing this comprehensive group of poems that Peter wrote throughout his lifetime, most of which was spent in Falmouth and Portland. Steve Luttrell, in a paragraph on the back cover, explains it well:

“Peter Kilgore was a poet of place. His work from his early days showed an eye for the beauty around him.”

I especially enjoyed Peter’s poems about birds and wild animals including moose, and his poems about the Allagash, one of my favorite places in Maine. And his poems set on the islands off Portland, reminded me of the many wonderful experiences Linda and I enjoyed on Peaks Island.

Bruce Holsapple and Dana Wilde wrote a wonderful introduction to the book including a detailed history of Peter who moved to Washington state and suffered severe depression, taking his own life at the age of 52. As Bruce and Dana write, “Some 25 years later, he continues to be missed, but the poetry speaks as richly as ever.”

Indeed it does.

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.