Yesterday I stumbled into what I hope will be a fruitful and also fun writing opportunity. An organization known as Writing the Land is actively looking to pair poets with participating land trusts. Right now its focus seems to be New England, mostly Massachusetts, but New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine land trusts are also available for partnerships. 

When I contacted them, they responded immediately, with pleasure. And now I have been paired with a section of the Kennebec Estuary Land Trust, a glorious area linking the Kennebec River and Merrymeeting Bay to the sea. I'm particularly delighted to be matched with this region because Harmony was in the Kennebec watershed, so the region itself is a link between my old life and my new. Tom, Paul, and I had already begun exploring bits of the area--a visit to Swan Island, a canoe trip on the Muddy River into Merrymeeting--and a good bit of my reading of Maine history has focused on the movement of people from the coast into the interior via the Kennebec waterways.

So I'm excited to have a potential writing project that is also linked to the outdoors, to my own past and future.

If you're interested in this project, I know they're continuing to invite poets. You're a poet. You should apply.