Our friend and occasional contributor to this blog Tom Sexton in Alaska sent us a poem that he brought back from a recent walk near his home in Anchorage. Tom’s latest book is a collection of his best poems about Lowell, Cummiskey Alley, available at loompress.com, on amazon, and at Lala Books in Lowell. 

Photos by Kevin Harkins for Merrimack Valley Magazine.

Walking in New Snow

by Tom Sexton

It gilds the paper birches

makes them bow.

The darker poplars take

it in stride believing

the birches lack gravitas.

I didn’t intend to write

this little poem,

but that’s what walking

in new snow

can do to a poet,

this old poet anyway.

In a minute or two,

the small woods I’m

in will end at a parking lot.

I’ll turn around then

retrace my steps, perhaps

revise a line, try it on my tongue

give thanks I have nothing to do

and nothing I’d rather be doing.