At sundown, after many trips back and forth, from house to studio in the damp landscape, it feels like all my words have gathered at the foot of the trees in silence.

To a Leaf Falling in Winter

At sundown when a day’s words
have gathered at the feet of the trees
lining up in silence
to enter the long corridors
of the roots into which they
pass one by one thinking
that they remember the place
as they feel themselves climbing
away from their only sound
while they are being forgotten
by their bright circumstances
they rise through all of the rings
listening again
afterward as they
listened once and they come
to where the leaves used to live
during their lives but have gone now
and they too take the next step
beyond the reach of meaning

—W.S. Merwin, in “Present Company,” Copper Canyon Press, 2005