Can’t keep

Canada geese

“Some woman every year

Must catch her breath and weep

With so much wildness near

At all she cannot keep.’’

— From “The Geese,’’ by May Sarton (1912-1995), prolific Belgian-American writer. In the last 22 years of her life, she lived in a house (since demolished) on the coast of York, Maine.

To read/listen to the whole poem, hit this link.

The Wiggly Bridge, in York, is the smallest pedestrian suspension bridge in the United States.

—Photo by Bigmacthealmanac

Those old wavering boundaries

1794 map of York, Maine

From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

There’s an entertaining boundary dispute underway between Kittery and York, Maine, that reminds us how old New England is. The origins of the dispute go back to at least 1653, when Puritan invaders from Massachusetts drew a straight line to mark part of the two towns’ boundary with each other.

But, reports The Boston Globe, “property {ownership} changes and long-forgotten handshakes had incorporated wobbles and bumps into what became an accepted, meandering boundary from Brave Boat Harbor to the present-day Town of Eliot, which borders both Kittery and York.’’]

The argument commenced in 2018, when York developer Duane Jellison had bought property on Route 1 that he believed “was evenly divided between York and Kittery. His surveyor concluded, instead, that the majority of the property is in York,’’ The Globe said.\

I suspect that there are grounds for similar disputes all over New England, especially those parts settled by Europeans (and taken from the Indians) in the 17th and 18th centuries. Let the litigation spread, giving us all some fascinating history lessons

To read The Globe’s story, please hit this link.

A poet finds grace on the Maine Coast

Cape Neddick Light (circa 1920), in York, Maine, where May Sarton lived in her last years, after moving from Nelson, N.H.

"As I think about it today in my 81st year, looking out at the sea from my desk, I realize that what I have found in Maine is more than courtesy and kindness. It is grace.''

-- The late poet May Sarton, in "I Was on my Way Home Anyway,'' in the March 1994 Yankee magazine.
 

York is a well-known summer resort town, with 18-hole golf clubs, four sandy beaches and Mount Agamenticus, a remarkably high hill (692 feet) considering its proximity to the sea. There's lots of "old money'' there, perhaps best seen at the exclusive York Harbor Reading Room club.

-- Photo by Fredlyfish

At the top of Mount Agamenticus, in York.

"York Harbor, Coast of Maine'' (1877), by Martin Johnson Heade.