In partnership with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, Portland Poet Laureate Gibson Fay-LeBlanc is launching Deep Water, a weekly poetry column for the Maine Sunday Telegram. Each column will include a brief introduction by Fay-LeBlanc contextualizing the week’s poem.

Like a beach with a sudden drop-off, the best poems put you in the cold ocean without warning: the sand under your feet falls away, your heart thuds in your chest, and it’s all you can do to stay afloat. This column will focus on poems with deep water in them, in their sudden change in temperature, in their ability to grab a reader’s attention, and in their marriage of form and content.

Deep Water will begin appearing in September. An open submission will be held through Aug. 15; poems will not be considered on an ongoing basis after the Aug. 15 deadline.

Poems submitted to Deep Water should be written by Maine poets or non-Mainers writing about Maine.

For more information and full submission guidelines, visit: deepwater.submittable.com.