The Orchard

I have dreamed

Of accomplishment.
I have fed

Ambition.
I have traded
Nights of sleep

For a length of work.
Lo, and I have discovered
How soft bloom

Turns to green fruit
Which turns to sweet fruit
Lo, and I have discovered

All winds blow cold
At last,
And the leaves,

So pretty, so many,
Vanish,
In the great, black

Packet of time,
In the great, black
Packet of ambition,

And the ripeness
Of the apple
Is its downfall.

--Mary Oliver