Wilton poet Carolyn Gelland reads “Coring the Moon” from her late husband Kenneth Frost’s book of poetry Friday. The poem coincides with the images in a painting by artist friend Julie Anne Reed of Mexico, Maine. The painting is beside her.

WILTON — A newspaper article on blueberry picking in Western Maine launched the most wonderful adventure of their lives, poet Carolyn Gelland said of her and her husband.

Life in a Manhattan apartment that was too small to hold their collection of books changed when she and husband Kenneth Frost, also a poet, saw the article in 1997.

“We thought that would be nice,” she said Friday from the sun-drenched living room of her East Wilton home.

So began 10-plus years of an idyllic life in rural Maine that provided peace, quiet and serenity, allowing time for them to work. They wrote daily and then shared their efforts with each other.

Frost’s death last year came soon after his first book of poetry, “Night Flight,” was published.

Gelland’s first book of poetry, “Four Alarm House,” was released last month on Valentine’s Day.

A collection of poems from which “gleam images of great delicacy and daring,” is what Bates College poet and professor Robert Farnsworth wrote in the foreword of her book.

Since then, her quiet life has evolved into a series of readings of both Frost’s and her work. The readings bring vibrant images to life through her spoken words.

Sharing Frost’s work is a tribute to him, she said.

After seeing that newspaper article, Gelland, who had never been to Maine, came up to look for a house. She found a nearly perfect, bookshelf-lined home in Avon. They had only been there six months when the home caught fire during the ice storm of 1998.

After losing electricity during the storm, a generator ignited forcing them from the home with only their lives, pets and poetry.

Gone were the 2,000 books they had moved from that Manhattan apartment, their city clothes and the life they left behind, she said. Even so, she was thankful for their survival and that of their “pups.” The fire leaves its imprint in her work and the title of her new book.

Rather than renovate the home, they opted for a fresh start buying a hilltop house in East Wilton with views and trees surrounding the grounds that made them feel like they were living in a park, she said.

They led a quiet life, rarely venturing out, she said. Born and raised in New York, she never learned to drive a car. Frost, who was injured during his service in the Korean War, was using a wheelchair by the time they came to Maine.

“We came here to work,” she added. “We were so happy for the chance to do it.”

While she always loved poetry and had started writing, she worked as a translator and operated a small art gallery in Manhattan in the days before her marriage.

Her husband, an economist, was injured in combat and spent three years at Walter Reed General Hospital. He earned a silver medal of valor in Korea, she said, but those experiences changed his focus from economy to literature, history and theology.

After the couple met, he shared his writings with her but took interest in her work, too, she said.

“He brought me forth and I thrived,” she said of their work together. “We had a rich life. He left me a lot (of memories) to live on for the rest of my life.”

Now her life is still full with friends, her faith and worship with the faith community at St. Joseph’s Church in Farmington.

Walks around the rural East Wilton roads with the “pups” (two poodles and a beagle) and stopping to view the cows lends time to think, renew her spirit and inspire her to continue writing, she said.

There’s more work to do. She’s working her way through the poetry Frost wrote over those 10-plus years, enough for at least three more books.

She’s compiling his second book now, writing herself, providing readings throughout Maine and New York and taking care of the pups.

abryant@sunjournal.com

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