NORWAY – “We are poets, not just people, or family or friend.”

With the opening lines of her poem “We are Poets,” Joanna Reese greeted the 21 poets who read their works at the second annual Poets on the Porch at the Norway Memorial Library Saturday.

Harrison poet Lisa Moore organized the first Poets on the Porch last year because she wanted poetry to be part of Norway’s Summer Festival, which focuses on art, but includes music and dance.

Last year, Maine’s poet laureate Baron Wormser accepted Moore’s invitation to read on the Weary Club porch. “I think that pulled a lot of interest and a lot of people in,” Moore said, but, surveying the crowd, she added “we don’t even need a headliner.”

“For me it’s the array of voices that makes this interesting,” Moore said. “It’s not any one voice; it’s this blend.”

The voices this year came from all over the Oxford Hills and from as far away as Farmington and Portland. They stammered, shouted, even sang out their words to an audience that cheered and nodded appreciatively in response.

The poems were social, political, spiritual and personal. The poets themselves ranged from published writers to artists to people who may never have read their works out loud before.

Many of the poets were members of the Mountain Poets, which meets at the Fare Share Commons on the last Thursday of each month. The Mountain Poets evolved last year when Rockie Graham, a founding member of the Bethel Poets, moved closer to Norway.

Graham credits area writer Jeanette Baldridge with the creation of the group. Graham took an adult education course from Baldridge seven years ago, “which we turned into a poetry class,” she said. When the class ended, Graham suggested that the students keep meeting to share their works. That group became the Bethel Poets and is now the Mountain Poets.

Poems by Moore and other members of the Mountain Poets will be included in the book “Literary Treasures from the Western Maine Foothills,” by local historian Peter Lenz. The book will be available on Aug. 1, and a reception will be held for the author at the Fare Share Commons on Oct. 16.

“We are poets”

By Joanna Reese

We are poets

Not just people

Or family or friend

We are poets

Not just a neighbor

Or a maid or American

We are poets

Not just clerks

Or a professional or an eclectic

We are poets

You and I