A ribbon of birds
climbs and builds in the air
the image of a voiceless shout for joy!
They are leaving now.
Soon early snowflakes
will land in grain fields–
arrivals from a more silent place.

The mind stretches out…a pond
awaiting the touch of leaves in green ice…

We walk down roads more quickly,
racing with the cold.
In our speech are traces
of a new tune the trees sing
and above us sharper stars
appear like crowns of dew
in night’s tangled meadow.

Something immediate trembles in us,
an offering to the whole universe.