<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><span style="font-size: 22px;">Things</span><div style="font-size: 22px;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The hen flings a single pebble aside</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">with her yellow, reptilian foot.</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Never in eternity the same sound —</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">a small stone falling on a red leaf.</span><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The juncture of twig and branch,</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">scarred with lichen, is a gate</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">we might enter, singing.</span><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The mouse pulls batting</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">from a hundred-year-old quilt.</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">She chewed a hole in a blue star</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">to get it, and now she thrives….</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Now is her time to thrive.</span><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Things: simply lasting, then</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">failing to last: water, a blue heron’s</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">eye, and the light passing</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">between them: into light all things</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">must fall, glad at last to have fallen.</span></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">- Jane Kenyon</span></div></div></body></html>