Tom Sexton at Northern Essex Community College, Haverhill, Mass. (photos by Kevin Harkins)

Farewell to Our Friend Tom Sexton, American Poet (1940-2025)

We learned from his wife Sharyn Sexton that our friend and fellow contributor to this blog Tom Sexton passed away at home in Alaska on March 12 after a long illness. He is considered one of the most important poets of Alaska in the past 50 years and gained a national reputation as an author.

Out west, Tom is praised as a poet of Nature, whether seen in the Pacific Northwest wilderness or the Anchorage outskirts. His admiration for the poets of ancient China is well known. Their sympathies filter through his writing. In the east of his roots, both in post-World War Two Lowell and later when living part-time in Maine, Tom is admired for the gritty lyricism in poems about city and seacoast settings and the people there. Not many American poets leave a legacy that spans the continent.

Chris Bieri of the Anchorage Daily News in a recent feature writes that Tom “is remembered for his ‘unbelieveable’ influence teaching Alaska writers.” Writer and former student Mike Burwell says, “You turn over a rock and somebody took a class from Tom Sexton.” Marybeth Holleman, another writer who studied with Tom, says, “He was a wonderful, generous, kind, very calm teacher.”

In addition to Dark Cloud in Isabel Pass, which is forthcoming this summer from Loom Press, Tom is the author of 12 books of poetry including Cummiskey Alley: New and Selected Lowell Poems, Li Bai Rides a Dolphin Home, A Ladder of Cranes, I Think Again of Those Ancient Chinese Poets, and For the Sake of the Light: New and Selected Poems.

Tom Sexton on the trail (photo courtesy of Sharyn Sexton via Anchorage Daily News)

Tom was born and grew up in Lowell, Massachusetts, along the Concord and Merrimack rivers. After graduating from public high school in 1958, he served in the U. S. Army for three years, part of the time in Alaska.

In an essay recollecting his youth in Lowell, the Lower Belvidere neighborhood specifically, Tom writes:

“It’s said that James Joyce living in exile could name every street and alley in Dublin. I can’t say the same for Lowell, but what I can say is Lower Belvidere is my touchstone, the place I always return to in my daydreams and even in my dreams. In my mind, I still walk along Fayette, Perry, Concord, and Pleasant streets. I still climb Fort Hill to look for Indian arrowheads and get my hair cut by John the barber on High Street who is still unhappy about his son. I’m still waiting for a girl from Rogers Hall to fall in love with me when we meet at the corner store even though I know she’s been told not to talk to the locals and to cross the street when she sees one of us on the same side. Looking back, I have no idea how I know this.”

Following his military service, Tom studied at Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill downriver from Lowell. He helped establish the school’s award-winning literary journal called Parnassus, which is still active. He then enrolled at Salem State College (now Salem State University) in Salem, Mass., earning a bachelor’s degree in English in 1968.

Soon after, Tom returned to Alaska for a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. As a faculty member at the expanded campus in Anchorage (1970-1994), he taught English and creative writing and for a time chaired the department. Tom was a founding editor of the highly regarded and nationally distributed Alaska Quarterly Review. In 1995, the Alaska State Council on the Arts appointed him to serve a term as Poet Laureate of the state. His accolades include being named to the Lowell High School Hall of Fame as a distinguished alumnus.

Tom lived in Anchorage with his wife, Sharyn, and for a long time their dog Murphy.

A friend, colleague, faithful correspondent, and guide to me and many others, Tom’s presence among us is already missed.

–PM