Staff Writer
Lloyd Archer, of Mapleton has worked for the Coca-Cola Company for 32 years, but has always had a passion for writing poetry since he was a child. Born in Presque Isle, he graduated from high school there and then went to technical school. Since then he has taken several college courses to fine-tune his skills in writing. When Archer turned 50 he challenged himself to write 50 poems and that is what he did. Now he has completed a couple of hundred and has had them published professionally.
Archer is somewhat like an artist or even a writer; he can be inspired by just about anything. It doesn’t even matter where he is, as he shared with me the story about his gift to his sister.
He had somehow forgotten her birthday so as he sat on the ‘john’ the words just came to him and not having his writing materials he used the next best thing, the roll of ever flowing toilet paper.
He framed the masterpiece not even copying it onto anything else and sent it off to her. Archer recalled that it took her about a month before she noticed the kind of paper it was written on, because she was more concerned about it being late and the content in it.
Archer has written poems relating to the seasons, sports folks, bugs, vacant buildings and more. He also is interested in photography and many of his photographs accompany his poems.
One of his pieces is about an abandoned house and the questions about its past. He learned just recently that one of his readers located a forgotten house in their town of Mars Hill and cleaned it out then took their entire family along with food and had a meal in it. After the meal, they read his poems about the abandoned house.
Archer was quite surprised to know how his poetry had impacted his readers. He says he likes to stay in the background and just observe people, but with the recent publication of his books of poetry, he finds himself the center of attention doing readings at various events.
He most recently was a guest reader in Patten at the Lumberman’s Museum during the Pioneer Days and may be appearing in the Houlton area in the near future.
Archer’s books are available at York’s Bookstore in Houlton, Whitey’s Market in Oakfield and Kelly’s in Sherman. They are great gift items and a perfect choice for those that live locally or those that live away.
