Maple Leaf

My friend and I stood in a remote forest 11 years ago and watched a leaf fall 120 feet to the ground - it was the only leaf that seemed to be falling at that moment. We both watched its unending fall through infinite silence with profound clarity. I do not really know what he understood from that moment but later on our walk he fell to the ground in the slow and graceful manner that the leaf showed us. He was unharmed. My newest understanding of that long ago occurrence emerged 10 minutes ago with this poem.
 

                                                                                                            google image

Falling with grace
A big maple leaf
Spiraling down
Through time
Yellow- red
And green
Not dead
Circling
Back to
Soil

Have you done this before?
Your fall into grace
Your beauty was perfect
It alone in the full world
Caught and held our eye
We never sought to help
We never felt sad
Pure colored beauty
A job well done
A life well lived
And it left us both
Somehow trying harder
To live life well
To live life fully
How could such a teaching
Reach out and touch us both
Through the silence
Of your speechless beauty