• Sunlight shimmers through emerald leaves.
    One lets go of a willow tree bough.
    Drifting like silk through midsummer air,
    landing on a silver stream now.

    Pulled along to a gurgling brook,
    rushing around and over rocks--
    there it goes!
    Passing gently swaying phlox.

    Suddenly around a bend,
    the water's spray will hiss.
    There's the lake blue and deep.
    On it, the leaf feels the water's kiss.

    Onto the water glides my canoe;
    ripples push the leaf to my hand.
    I smile and look up,
    across the lake, across the land.

    Where have you been, little leaf?
    What wonders have you seen
    in this land of 1,000 lakes
    far from your tree, so green.