Edited and Introduced by Wesley McNair, Maine Poet Laureate
In his poetry Thomas Moore of Brooksville often writes about people and places in Maine. Today he concentrates on Episcopalians in a nearby coastal town.
Summer Episcopalians
~notes from an introvert
by Thomas R. MooreThey are more self-confident than I,
and even though I’m one of them,they rattle me when I overhear their spiels
in deli about imported Swiss beforechoosing Champagne Brie, or when
these women, white-haired, blue-blooded,chat so self-assuredly in coffee and tea,
their crisp tennis dresses showingtheir pedigree with baskets full of organic
pears, natural chicken thighs,and English breakfast tea. The men
are clean-shaven with jaws that sayprominent, sailing tans melding
into winter’s Merlot seas. Theirfaces are almost names. I dodge
into canned vegetables and flee.
Thomas R. Moore lives in Brooksville. Two of his poems were featured
on The Writer’s Almanac in January 2011, one of his poems is a
Pushcart Nominee, and one a Pushcart Special Mention. His 2010 book,
The Bolt-Cutters, was one of three finalists in the 2011 Maine
Literary Awards competition.
Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Poem copyright © 2012 by Thomas R. Moore. Reprinted from Chet Sawing: Poems, Fort Hemlock Press, 2012, by permission of Thomas R. Moore.
Questions about submitting to Take Heart may be directed to Gibson Fay-LeBlanc, Special Consultant to the Maine Poet Laureate, at mainepoetlaureate@gmail.com or 207-228-8263. Take Heart: Poems from Maine, an anthology collecting the first two years of this column, is now available from Down East Books.