Andrea Suarez Hill

The poems in A Portrait To Paint celebrate two journeys: the career in New York City that Andr a Suarez Hill had in print, broadcast and photo journalism until 1987; as well as the life she and her husband made when they moved to Down East Maine and created a salt water farm on a bay near the ocean. The poetry reflects these two very different rural and urban lifestyles. The section titled "We," as a metaphor for the family of man, captures daily news from across the globe: climate change, social injustice, the Covid pandemic, political issues and more. In the chapter titled "You," Suarez-Hill writes about her relationships with horses, wild animals, people and places both in New York and Maine. The last part of the book, "Me," expresses her inner world, feelings about aging as well as about her childhood, family and friends. A reader feels the wonder Andr a Suarez Hill experiences across the years wherever she lives and looks.

The poems in A Portrait To Paint celebrate two journeys: the career in New York City that Andr a Suarez Hill had in print, broadcast and photo journalism until 1987; as well as the life she and her husband made when they moved to Down East Maine and created a salt water farm on a bay near the ocean. The poetry reflects these two very different rural and urban lifestyles. The section titled "We," as a metaphor for the family of man, captures daily news from across the globe: climate change, social injustice, the Covid pandemic, political issues and more. In the chapter titled "You," Suarez-Hill writes about her relationships with horses, wild animals, people and places both in New York and Maine. The last part of the book, "Me," expresses her inner world, feelings about aging as well as about her childhood, family and friends. A reader feels the wonder Andr a Suarez Hill experiences across the years wherever she lives and looks.

After being mugged for the third time in twenty years, Andrea Suarez-Hill knew she could no longer live in New York City. She and her partner, Arthur Hill, read a three-line advertisement in Down East Magazine, "Last land on the coast of Maine for sale" and went to take a look. What they found was eleven acres of trees which had been logged twenty years before and blighted by an infestation of spruce budworm. But, the beauty of the Chandler River with an old farm on the opposite shore more than made up for the work that lay ahead. Two years later, they left their careers in New York to find a new way to live. They planned to call their new home "The Lough" due to its location on a bay at the mouth of the Chandler River. But, as they worked to clear the land, a friend who helped them, Jon Watts, said "you have a budworm farm" and the name stuck. Budworm Farm was born and stands today because of townspeople like Jon, Mark Alley, Al Caruso, Ginny Fieldman, the Snowdeal family and Mary & Eddie Stubbs. With the help and guidance of all these locals, the Hills began to create a farm to fit their vision. The poems and photos in The Making of Budworm Farm express the life they made together over the past thirty-four years. The poetry explores subjects in down-to-earth language, painting a story full of pictures: the seasons, each with its own scent, sounds, rituals and weather to tend, as well as emotional landscapes that describe the passage of time with nature, horses and each other. From image to image, one sees Budworm Farm evolve as the land is shaped and rites of passage mark the years: the birth of a colt, the death of both mentors and friends (both two and four-legged) and the changes in the climate that affect the seabirds, fishery and the lives of all beings.

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