BRUNSWICK, Maine — Maine poet Gary Lawless has written 16 collections of poetry and operated, with his wife, Beth Leonard, Gulf of Maine Books on Maine Street for nearly 40 years.
In March, the Maine Humanities Council will honor Lawless, 65, for decades contributing to public humanities — bringing poetry and voice to refugee communities, veterans and developmentally disabled adults, among others — and bestow on him the 2017 Constance H. Carlson Public Humanities Prize.
Lawless has served as artist-in-residence at organizations including the Preble Street Shelter in Portland and in prisons. He writes poetry with those “underserved” by society, in an effort to restore their voices.
“I’ve tried a lot to use poetry as a way to get their voice back in the community and to encourage people to speak into the community and find a way that they don’t feel overlooked,” Lawless said Wednesday. “I think for a lot of people, the biggest gift we can give people is to listen to them in our hearts, and not just try to determine what kinds of meds to put them on or what kind of housing they need.”
“With the refugee community, if we can hear their stories, we can have a human connection, see them as fellow human beings who have gone through way more than what we probably will,” he continued. “There’s a reason they are fleeing their homeland. [And] some people are in their homeland and aren’t treated very well: the homeless, veterans.”
On Tuesdays, Lawless visits Spindleworks, a nonprofit arts center that works with adults with disabilities, a few blocks from Gulf of Maine Books. There, he writes poetry with the artists.
This week, they wrote, “ The Heart Blooms,” a group poem about Valentine’s Day.
Lawless began working with Spindleworks artists years ago after realizing that the studio’s weavings were selling well.
“I thought, other than a name on the product, you should know the story of the human being who made it, not just see them as the disabled person who made it, but as Earl and Diane and Rita,” he said. “And that has really happened in Brunswick. Everyone knows them and watches out for them, and they’ve really become part of the community.”
Lawless, who lives in Nobleboro, is originally from Belfast and graduated from Colby College in Waterville. In 1979, he opened Gulf of Maine Books, with his wife, Beth Leonard. He is also editor and publisher of Blackberry Books, and he has published 16 collections of poetry in the United States.
In 2008, he received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Southern Maine in Portland.
“Gary’s work in the community is a spectacular example of how poetry can make a meaningful difference in the lives of Mainers from all backgrounds,” Hayden Anderson, executive director of the Maine Humanities Council, said in a news release.
Lawless will be honored at a luncheon on March 24 at Bowdoin College in Brunswick.