By Peggy Yocom
RANGELEY – On Sunday, August 7, lovers of poetry will gather at 6 p.m. in Rangeley at the Ecopelagicon nature store, 7 Pond Street, to honor poet Hugh Ogden of Poets’ Island, Rangeley (1937-2006). Maine Poet Laureate Stuart Kestenbaum will read from his work. Sponsored by Ecopelagicon, the event is free to all. Light refreshments will be served.
Members of the Ogden family will begin the evening by reading poems written by their father. Community members are invited to read a poem of Hugh’s or one of their own that attends to what meant so much to Hugh: the beauty and mystery of the world, especially Rangeley, and peace among all living things. A sign-up sheet will be available at the start of the evening, since time will be limited.
During the second part of the evening, Stuart Kestenbaum will read. A resident of Deer Isle, Kestenbaum was appointed to the five-year, honorary position of Maine Poet Laureate in March of this year. His latest book of poetry, Only Now, came out in 2014; like his other four, it was published by a Maine press. The director of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts from 1988 to 2015, he has also authored non-fiction books, such as The View From Here: Craft, Community, and the Creative Process.
Kestenbaum’s love for Maine—its people, its arts, and its ways of life—shines in the titles of his poems: “Starting the Subaru at Five Below,” “In Praise of Hands,” “Prayer in the Strip Mall, Bangor, Maine.” Many writers praise his work: Dana Wilde describes Kestenbaum’s newest poems as “accessible sentences” that aim toward “friendly, practical exhortations to live in and appreciate the beautiful dawning moment of now.” The Ecopelagicon will have several of his books on sale.
The wisdom of the natural world links the poetry of Stuart Kestenbaum and Hugh Ogden. In “Fir on the Oquossoc Shore,” Hugh wrote: “Year after year I reach straight/ up, my trunk and voice grounded/ in incremental rhythms evergreen.”
In this spirit, friends of poetry will gather on August 7; please join us. For more information, to join our e-mail list, or to contribute to the fund set up for this event by the Ogden family, contact Peggy Yocom at 864-3421 (myocomATgmu.edu) or Linda Dexter at the Ecopelagicon 864-2771. Visit http://ecopelagicon.com and http://hughogden.com and http://margaretyocom.com/poetry
