“Swifts”

William Page’s poems have appeared widely in such journals as North American Review, The Sewanee Review, Southern Poetry Review, and The Southern Review. He is the founding editor of The Pinch and a retired professor of creative writing at the University of Memphis. In this Maybe Best of All Possible Worlds is his fifth collection.

Swifts

The heavens close their shop of sun,
and on the west horizon darkness comes
riding the wings of evening.
Over an ocean a thousand miles away
swifts are rowing their wings
below clouds still holding
a glimmer of gold while the moon
is biding its time.
These creatures with feathers
no thicker than the falling
maple leaf carry them
so rapidly their name is Swift,
these birds that can fly
a thousand miles in the time
Earth turns once on its axis.
I wish I could accomplish something
so remarkable in a lifetime of rushing.

Copyright (c) 2016 by William Page. All rights reserved. “Swifts” originally appeared in the fall 2011 issue of the Valparaiso Poetry Review. Page will read and sign copies of In This Maybe Best of All Possible Worlds at Burke’s Book Store in Memphis on June 23, 2016, at 5:30 p.m.