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About MPS

History
The Waterville Poets Club and the Dover-Foxcroft Poetry Circle joined in 1936 to form the Poetry Fellowship of Maine. In 1993, the name was changed to Maine Poets Society to reflect the organization's changing emphasis on a statewide network of writers sharing their work.

More about our history can be found here: History of the Maine Poets Society

Affiliation
The society is affiliated with the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (NFSPS). Maine Poets Society membership fee includes NFSPS membership and allows our members the opportunity to participate in a variety of contests and events each year. For more information, visit NFSPS online at www.nfsps.com.

Who's Who at MPS

  Board Members

President’s Message December 2025.

Homo sapiens is an art-making species. In June I was in the Dordogne valley in France and saw for myself the art created by neolithic people painting on cave walls. Horses and cattle sprang to life; handprints attested to the humanity of their creators. Those of us who have raised children have seen them draw and build, heard them make up songs and sing them. We may remember our own childhood experiences of doing those things.

As we head towards the holidays, let's take time to consider our own contributions to the world's art. Most of our work won't survive the way those cave paintings survived—paper and print and digital storage aren't as long-lasting as stone—but art doesn't have to be eternal. Isn't it enough to put the unique productions of our hearts and minds out there to share with others? Isn't that as much of a gift to the world as anything we might unwrap from the pile under the Christmas tree even if only our families or our fellow-poets read it?

Our Anthology Committee has been working on the contributions from MPS members, and we are confident that by the time of our ninetieth anniversary next year we will have a book we are proud to put into the hands of our members. I hope you will all be proud to buy copies for yourself and to share with loved ones. All of us on the committee read all the submitted poems and gave careful consideration to which poems to include and how best to share them with you all. So much love and thought went into the poems we read that I think this anthology is a real tribute to the skill and heart of our members.

As President I was tasked with writing the introduction to the anthology, and I chose to keep it short and simple. The words of the poets are more important than anything I can write. Our Secretary, Jeanne Julian, has been diving into our archives, which are held at the Dyer Library in Saco, and will be writing a short history to be included. To be honest, one of the reasons the history will be short is that she and I discovered when we looked at them that there are very few records in the archives! We are attempting to remedy that by including some of our more recent copies of Stanza, but storage space at the library is very limited. I am hoping there will be room to include a copy of the anthology.

Archives and records of our work, such as our 90th anniversary anthology, are a gift we give to the world and the future. I like to think that in another decade we will have a centenary celebration and another anthology to add to that. Whether I will be around to read it is another matter completely, and there will undoubtedly be another President writing her column for Stanza, but I live in hope.

Jenny Doughty,
President, MPS
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