Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Robert P. Tristram Coffin, whose work appeared in the July 2021 issue of the magazine, contributed to Down East just once, in the magazine’s fifth issue, in 1955. The poem he composed to accompany a winter photo feature was to be the first in a series written for Down East, but Coffin died of a heart attack at age 62 shortly before the magazine went to press. The editors dedicated the issue to Coffin, “in recognition of his distinction and brilliance — and kindness contributing to the Magazine of Maine.” Flip through the old pages on which Coffin’s poem ran below.
