POETRY
QUARRY
The Collected Poems of Peter Kilgore
The Collected Poems of Peter Kilgore
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Peter Kilgore spent most of his life in Falmouth and Portland, Maine. His poetry, collected for the first time here in Quarry, appeared in literary magazines and small press books from the 1970s through the time of his death in 1992. Reflected in it is his deep reverence for Maine’s natural world, his family, his hometown, and in particular his powerful relationship to the sea and Long Island in Casco Bay. The taut, crystalline lines and imagery in Peter’s poetry shine with the unique vitality of Maine people and places.
“I know no poet whose ear is more finely attuned to language than Peter Kilgore.
The silences that surround the short lines characteristic of his poetry are measures of his watching and listening to the varieties of speaking silence from which musical speech arises. Returning to his work after decades, I found myself in the midst of sacred space.” – Lee Sharkey, editor of Beloit Poetry Journal, author of Walking Backwards “Here in Maine, in the early 1970s, Contraband Magazine started appearing, and I found a group of young Maine poets, kindred souls in a lonely state for poets. One of my favorites was Peter Kilgore. His poems struck home. They were clear, spare, intelligent, and informed. Peter didn’t stay with us long enough, and it is a great gift to have this collection of his poems in print, in the air, to hear the sound of his voice, again.” – Gary Lawless, Blackberry Books, author of Wolf Driving Sled: Selected Poems, 1970-1980 “Peter Kilgore was a poet of place. His work from his early days showed an eye for the beauty around him. Openings, an early title, shows a careful eye of observation and The Bar Harbor Suite displays his keen awareness of place. His poems are full of tides and pines and ‘rain-capped wildflowers.’ In his own words, his poems are ‘close and green / rooted to sea.’” – Steve Luttrell, editor of The Café Review, author of Plumb Line |
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