Poet Stuart Kestenbaum, pictured with Governor Mills in January 2020. Courtesy of Stuart Kestenbaum. The Maine Arts Commission requests applications to select a new state poet laureate for a five-year term. Maine’s Poet Laureate position is an appointment designed to promote poetry throughout the state while honoring a Maine poet whose work can inspire an understanding and appreciation of the craft of poetry for the people of our state. Current Poet Laureate Stuart Kestenbaum completes his five-year term in 2021. Kestenbaum, a resident of Deer Isle, has used his position to share poetry in many different mediums, including his “Poems from Here” collaboration with Maine Public, which features a new Maine poem each week. Kestenbaum is the author of five collections of poems, most recently “How to Start Over” (Deerbrook Editions, 2019). He is also the author of the essay collection “The View from Here” (Brynmorgen Press, 2012).