Crabapple Bough

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

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