“Last night the first light frost, and now sycamore

and sumac edge yellow and red in low sun

and Indian afternoons. One after another

roads thicken with leaves and the wind

sweeps them fresh as the start of a year…’’

— From “Long Walks in the Afternoon,’’ by Margaret Gibson (born 1944), a former Connecticut poet laureate. She lives in Preston, Conn., in the southeastern part of the state.