Special Section: Blaine House Conference Wrap-Up

Excerpts from a poem by Aaron Frederick,
Maine Arts Commission member, presented at the Blaine House Conference on Maine's Creative Economy

	Aaron Frederick presenting his poem at the Blaine House Conference on Maine's Creative Economy.

...But it seems we're on the frontier on the Maine.
Radio towers above white pines transmitting
Osprey calls from railroad trestle stations,
Reaching out to teeming survivors;
Kids making blue tarp parachutes and jumping off sandpit walls,
And swimming in green gorges.

...Frontier pipe smoking chicken machinist farmer railroad yardsmen
Have given birth, here but then, to sons who now
Open hip breweries or sell insurance, or rasterize .JPEG images on micro-processors.

...And thusly evolves a new sub-society for today,
The Quiet Creatives, weaving baskets,
carrying quarts of potential energy,
Knitting culture and commerce with the spun yarn of risk.
They are We,
The intuitive scientists of manifestation,
Clad in plastic and wool, and
Bringing form from fingers dipped in Uncertainty.
They are We,
Shaping and Reshaping our Experience,
Our Need, our Desire
For carving out a vessel of change;
the rediscovery of priorities based on the core values
of Raw Integrity and Real purpose.
We are deep roots in the vital ocean, granite, and dark soil,
And in backyards full of all the neighborhood kids.
They are We, making it all happen.
Please stick around.