Here’s my second 2024 travel poem. Milford Sound in New Zealand is high among the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited.

The morning rains have given way

To shrouding mists and sheathing falls.

Birds burst the silence, dive for prey

With plangent cries and piercing calls

While seals seek out the shards of sun

That skitter on the rocks below,

I sip a crisp Blanc Sauvignon

And sense my heartbeat slow.