Our regular contributor from Alaska, Tom Sexton, sent us a new poem that shines a light in the darkness in these days that are getting shorter, with the news often disturbing. As he wrote on Sunday, October 24th, “At least the Pats won.” We need every and any reason to feel good and hopeful. Our readers may want to get Tom’s most recent collection of poems, Cummiskey Alley: New and Selected Lowell Poems. He’s working on a new book of poems about the wonders and truth in the natural world. The photos below are by Kevin Harkins.– PM

Swans

Two swans at dusk rising

from a lagoon

necks two comets as the turn.

I watch until they disappear.

The beating of their massive wings

is the beating of my heart.

Light snow on the mountains.

Long after midnight, a shooting star.

I wish for nothing more than this.

—Tom Sexton, 2021