Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

“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.

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