Autumn

The leaves are falling, falling from afar
as though from distant gardens in the heavens.
They fall reluctantly and loathe to leave.

So, too, the Earth is falling through the night
far from all stars down into solitude.

We are all falling. See this hand? It falls
as all things do respond to heaven’s laws.

Yet there is One, our Lord, who holds this falling
in His so infinitely tender hands.

–Rainer Maria Rilke