All Saints' Day

Today no breath
Of life's allowed
For Autumn spins
Her silken shroud

Thread upon thread
The earth is bound
(November's needle
Makes the round).

No wind may lift
The fallen leaf,
No flower, split
The face of grief.

No flight of birds
Distracts the eye
Across the smooth
Unraveled sky.

So still the day,
So pure, so bare;
Imprisoned in
Her crystal stare,

Earth waits a miracle -
Man too;
This is the day
All saints pass through.
- Anne Morrow Lindbergh
The Unicorn and Other Poems