In his most recent poetry collection, The Ends, Christian Barter explores both the landscape of Maine and the lives lived there. In “Champlain,” a poem that imagines the discovery of Mount Desert Island where Barter has lived most of his life, and in “Acadia,” a poem written in honor of the park, he addresses the issue of our stewardship of the earth, and in a series of sonnets dedicated to the outsider artist James Hampton, he explores what it means to devote a lifetime to the creation of a work of art. His own major work in this collection, a series of 34 sonnets, is a masterpiece of love poetry harkening back to Dante’s La Vita Nuova.

“Barter’s conversations with himself and a whole host of influences —Robert Lowell, Thucydides, Tracy Chapman—enact the possibility for discovery that is essential to poetry.” – Jeri Theriault, author of Self-Portrait as Homestead.

 “These are the poems of a writer sure of his craft and at the height of his skill.” – Jeffrey Thomson, author of Museum of Objects Burned by the Souls in Purgatory