One of our far-flung correspondents, Tom Sexton, checked in with a new poem from the apple yards of Maine, where he is counting icicles and writing a memoir about growing up in Lowell. In the great tradition of apple poems by Lawrence High School-grad Robert Frost and others, Tom gives us a fresh take from the stove top. Tom’s newest book of poems is “A Ladder of Cranes” from the University of Alaska Press. — PM

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In Praise of Applesauce

Who first to bring the scent of simmering

apples sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar

together? Could it have been Adam and Eve

in their cold hut outside the Gate of Eden?

Was it the serpent trying to make amends?

Let the snow fall and the cold wind blow

until all measurements come to an end.

Applesauce is simmering on the stove.

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—Tom Sexton (c) 2015