Through the door of the stately Porter Memorial Library on the last Friday of every month, the Porter Poets, as we call ourselves, have trooped. We sit down around a couple of aging tables near the old fireplace to read our poems, hear poems from others, and offer both criticism and encouragement. We come from Machias, the Washington County "shire town" where the library is located, but also from Addison, East Machias, Cutler, Beals Island, Jonesboro, Milbridge, Northfield, Roque Bluffs, and other towns on Washington County's coast. You wouldn't expect much poetry from so remote a location. Yet poetry's power is evident even here where there are mostly trees. A poet seems scribbling behind every third fir and fourth maple. We're not creating cleverness, however. We have things to say. From the Introduction by Gerald George