by Jeffrey Roth, Maine Morning Star
June 12, 2026
BELFAST, ME — “What is the point of poetry if voices are silenced when it matters most?” KaRyn Kuchenbar, associate editor of Albion-based The Evergreen Press, asked during the June 6 launch of a new poetry anthology protesting the actions of President Donald Trump.
Speaking at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Belfast, Kuchenbar said the intention of the project, titled “TYRANNY! Maine Poets Decry the Demise of American Democracy,” is to have Maine poets “weigh in on the nation’s current situation.” Liberty farmer and poet Peter D. Beckford reads one of his poems at the June 6 book launch of a new anthology on the rise of tyranny. More than 60 people attended the event held in Belfast, Maine. (Photo by Jeffrey B. Roth)
Editorial Director Kristin Frangoulis, who co-owns the self-publishing company with her husband, said the book is the second volume published by The Evergreen Press in protest of Trump, his administration, “and their actions and policies disrespecting and damaging our rights and our democracy.”
Among the 50 Maine poets included in the latest anthology are the town poet laureates of Belfast, Rockland and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Kuchenbar said, pointing out that the contributors includes winners of the Yale Younger Poets Prize, the 2023 Maine Poetry Contest, and the 2024 Maine Literary Short Works Poetry Award, among others.
Liberty resident and farmer Peter D. Beckford has two poems in the new anthology: “Cloudy Becoming Partly Cloudy” alludes to the 2020 killing of George Floyd, and a “The Truth About USAID.”
In the former, he uses a radio weather broadcast as a character of moral conscience:
But today he pronounced Caribou, Maine correctly
And his ‘gusts’ sounded more like “disgusts.”
Then after saying, “Mid-fifties,”
He paused
And said, “George Floyd.”
Clear as a bell
He said his name, “George Floyd.”
“I don’t really think much about my role as a poet, but sometimes I think it’s to provide food for thought for a reader —a new way of looking at something,” said Beckford, who recently won first place in the Maine Poets Society Poem of the Year contest.
He applauded the other contributors for their courage in standing up.
“Anything anybody does that’s headed in the direction of understanding tyranny and standing in solidarity against it, is a contribution,” he said, “writing or any of the creative acts, you know, from signs at rallies to dance and humor.”
However, he said that while it’s encouraging “to see how many people are putting their creative lives and talents to work,” it’s important to remember “that it’s not just the current moment that we need to be talking about, because there was a lot of tyranny before Trump came along.”
Blue Hill-based poet Martha Duncan is featured in both anthologies. She said she was “impressed that the people at Evergreen Press were willing to commit their time and energy to connecting people for the purpose of presenting their concerns.”
The first volume was published in 2025 with the support of the Dirigo Democracy Project, which promotes civic engagement through writing.
Deborah Smith moved to Belfast after retiring in 2024 from a career as a museum director and professor. She said that the anthology’s title inspired her to write an acrostic poem using each letter of the word Tyranny to start each line.
“T The MAGA movement has maneuvered itself into a nightmare,” the first line of the poem states.
The last two lines read:
N Now ask the crucial question: can you predict When time will run out?
Y Years? Months? Less? How long will it take you to get up off your chair?
The 130-page anthology features a total of 84 poems, by 50 Maine writers, along with bios of the contributors.
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