Autumn (by Rainer Maria Rilke)
The leaves are falling, falling as if from far up,
as if orchards were dying high in space.
Each leaf falls as if it were motioning “no.”
And tonight the heavy earth is falling
away from all other stars in the loneliness.
We’re all falling. This hand here is falling.
And look at the other one. It’s in them all.
And yet there is Someone, whose hands
infinitely calm, holding up all this falling.
A beautiful poem I heard in chapel recently that speaks of falling – the falling of leaves and the existential falling of us all. There’s a sadness or heaviness to it, but there is also relief and comfort “for yet there is Someone of “something” holding up all the falling.” There is a verse that this reminds me of that says, “underneath are the everlasting arms of God.” (Deut 33:27) We are held. I am held. It’s all held by this infinite love. We are falling. We are human. We are in God. We are held.
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