Thoughts on a Dead Leaf
It fell
Green life
Extinguished
Time passed
Slowly
It diminished
To its scaffolding
Intact beauty still
New life
Surviving
In the skeleton
Beneath the skin
Revealing the grace
Which had upheld
Its existence
Its structure
Naked now
Spine-bold
Ram-rod straight
Not dead now
Nor even dying
Instead
Skin shed
A statement
Of creation’s power
Holding its tendrils
Steady
In firm formation
Awaiting its
Next chapter
Not yet shredded
Not yet dust
This tomography
Call it a CAT scan
Delving into
Nature’s
secret world
Revealing
The truth
Of whence
Its green strength
Derived
Thus
As our own surface
Erodes
Do we achieve
The same beauty?
Do we secrete
Analogous
New life
Beneath the old?
We leaves
Fallen from life’s tree
Shrivelled
Our essence revealed
In our skeletal remains
Proud-structured
Until
The next stage
And eventual
Severance
From what we have been
Transmogrified
To further service
In replenishing
New life forms
Our fruition in
The new spring’s bloom
Blossom and leaves
There has to be beauty
In death
As in life
Decay
Does not doom us to death
Rather
There is a beauty in death
The leaf ceased to be
A leaf
But became
Something else
And its beauty remained
It merely
Continued
Into a transmuted life
Its fate
As our own
To be
Continued existence
For death is but a metaphor
For new life
All photographs . . . by WHB – 2016
Roland's Ragbag 
Your excellent poem Roland has a great shamanic spirit about it. Even when we die our bodies, ash, spirit are there to generate and foster new life and we remain part of the circle of creation.
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Thank you, Davy. I appreciate you taking the time and trouble to comment.
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Really lovely and thought provoking.
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Pleased to provoke you, Cate.
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Intricate, compelling Prose….Thank you
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Thank you for commenting Nigel. We Tykes know a thing or two about life – and leaves!!!
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Indeed we do Roland, one of the most satisfying pieces I’ve written was ‘Burnsall’. I hadn’t been to the Dales for years and the words just flowed. Of course the pint of Tim Taylor’s Bitter no doubt helped !
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I’ll go check that out, Nigel, I originate from further north – Guisborough, on the edge of the N.Yorks Moors. I live in Surrey now though – with my family. I’ve got several blogs about Whitby and the surrounding area which is still deep in my bloodstream.
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Have you got a reference for ‘Burnsall’, Nigel? I can’t seem to find it on your blog.
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It should come up in the search Roland, but I’ve re-jigged it anyway as I wanted to tie it in with another piece about Wharfedale,
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Thanks, Nigel. I’ve just read it – Impressed.
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Thank you kind Sir, it was a very ‘magical’ day in all seriousness because I was almost symptom free from Parkinson’s, no doubt to complete relaxation.
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Thank you, Nigel. I hope you have many more such days.
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