TAKE HEART: A CONVERSATION IN POETRY
Edited by Maine Poet Laureate Wesley McNair, Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry is a weekly newspaper column that features a previously published poem by a Maine poet. More than two dozen newspapers throughout Maine currently publish Take Heart, reaching tens of thousands of readers each week.

McNair selects each poem and writes a brief introduction about the poet’s background and connection to Maine, or the history, context, and themes of the poem. Working in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, this service is free to any interested newspapers or publications. If you would like to feature Take Heart, please contact us.

To learn more about the Maine Poet Laureate and his initiatives, visit the Office of the Maine Poet Laureate.

Take Heart is funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.
 

Buy the Book!

The Take Heart anthology is a collection of poems from Maine Poet Laureate Wesley McNair’s weekly newspaper column, which he launched in 2011 with the support of the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. The poems are chosen from the work of poets all over Maine and represent a wide cultural view of the state.

Available now from Down East Books.
 

Submit to Take Heart

Maine poets who would like their work considered for Take Heart may send copies of published poetry collections or other poetry publications (such as magazines or quarterlies) to:

Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance
Attn: Take Heart
Glickman Family Library
314 Forest Avenue, Room 318
Portland, Maine 04101

All submissions should include the poet’s mailing address, email, and phone number.

Send questions to poetlaureate [at] mainewriters.org.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

1. Poets must be Maine residents.
2. All poems must have been previously published in a book, chapbook, magazine, or journal.
3. Please include your contact information with the submission, including email address, phone number, and mailing address.
4. For submissions to the Maine Poet Laureate’s library, we prefer books or chapbooks, but we also accept individual poems in manuscript or tear-sheet form. With individual poems, please include the publication in which the poem was published and when it appeared.
5. All Take Heart selections are 30 lines or fewer. Poems longer than 30 lines will not be considered. Line counts include spaces between stanzas.
6. Please note that all selections are made on a rolling basis and that inclusion in Take Heart is not guaranteed.

Take Heart: The Archive

2013
May 12 “Fiddleheads” by Richard Foerster
May 5 “My Hairy Legs” by Mariana S. Tupper
Apr 28 “The Dump Pickers” by Bruce Guernsey
Apr 21 “Night Wind in Spring” by Elizabeth Coatsworth
Apr 14 “Spring Thaw” by Ruth F. Guillard
Apr 7 ”For Cullen: Four Days Old, Waking” by Preston H. Hood
Mar 31 “Which World” by Gary Lawless
Mar 24 “The Clerks” by Edwin Arlington Robinson
Mar 17 “Last Writes” by Carl Little
Mar 10 “Out Here” by Robin Merrill
Mar 3 “Musician” by Louise Bogan
Feb 24 “Divorce” by Donald Crane
Feb 17 “Airfield” by Robert Siegel
Feb 10 “Love Is Not All” by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Feb 03 “The Goldfish” by Mekeel McBride
Jan 27 “The Street” by Lewis Turco
Jan 20 “The Alligator’s Hum” by Kenneth Rosen
Jan 13 “Housekeeping of a Kind” by Patricia Ranzoni
Jan 07 “Sandwiches” by Pam Burr Smith