Sequoia pinecone

The leaves are falling,
falling as from way off,
as though far gardens withered in the skies;
they are falling with denying gestures.
And in the nights the heavy earth is falling from all the stars down into loneliness.
We all are falling.
This hand falls.
And look at others:
it is in them all.
And yet there is one who holds this falling endlessly gently in his hands.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Autumn