Poetry at the Library

On April 18th at 2PM, the library will be celebrating National Poetry Month with help from Steve Benson, Martha Duncan, Bea Gates, and Josh Krugman. All four poets will be sharing their work with us. Come and grab a cup of coffee or tea and settle in for a variety of poetry.

Meet the Poets:

Steve Benson has lived in Downeast Maine since 1996. Recently he has published in collaboration with the Splatter Trio a CD-and-book called It’s a Stool Pigeon Universe, a self-published book of 3 long poems called AS IT HAPPENS, and a book of four improvisational poetry performance transcripts as poems in Four Eyes (2025, City Point Press). He is one of a couple hundred outreach representatives for the Palestine-US Mental Health Network and joins in weekly local street rallies for ending genocide in Palestine. He tries to keep up with himself online at his website.

Beatrix Gates was awarded a 2026 Poetry Fellowship to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She is the author of The Burning Key, New & Selected Poems (1973–2023), which includes selections from seven previous books, as well as translations and uncollected poems. She has received fellowships from the Maine State Commission, MacDowell, Monson Arts and Ucross.
Collaborations with visual artists include Close Apart: Tim Seabrook (etchings) and Beatrix Gates (poetry), with color by Leslie Cummins. She also collaborated with bassoonist/composer Leslie Ross and sculptor Alexander Turanski on a work to celebrate Brooksville’s Reversing Fall Sanctuary’s 25th Anniversary, and participated in Deer Isle’s Fall of Freedom, a 2025-26 initiative for creative resistance, featuring artist-led, anti-authoritarian activations nationwide, organized by Linda Nelson. She lives in Brooksville.
Martha Duncan has published four chapbooks, most recently Beanblossom and Under the Japanese Dogwood with William Blake. One of her poems appears in Defiance! Maine Poets Protest the Attack on Democracy, published by Evergreen Press.
Joshua Krugman is a poet, composer, and theater-maker based in Blue Hill. His poems have recently appeared in Lamb’s Quarterly and Squirrel (anthology).