Crabapple Bough

crab apples in Albuquerque Botanic Garden
Let the apple ripen
on the branch
beyond your need
to take it down.

 

Let the coolness
of autumn
and the breathing,
blowing wind
test its adherence
to endurance,
let the others fall.

 

Wait longer
than you would,
go against yourself,
find the pale nobility
of quiet that ripening
demands;
watch with patience

David Whyte, Winter Apple, excerpt

Photo Credits:  Crabapple Bough, by Susan J. Preston, Albuquerque Botanic Garden © 2021, all rights reserved

 

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