A crack appeared inside a wall,
A door sprang up around it.
Each of these so finely drawn
I could not believe I found it.

A wildish wind blew it open wide,
My childish mind followed on outside,
And so I found myself among
My hearts delight surrounded.

A world of wonder lay without,
It was all of nature’s calling.
With field and forest, clouds and sun
Cascades of salt water falling.

Heights and valleys, dark ravines
Ivy thick and wild, deep and thorny scenes,
And yet each thing did love its place
In the lap of all of nature’s sprawling.

And so and so it goes.

I asked the one whose land this was
If I might have a token
To take with me back to the other side
To have and to keep unspoken.

I asked three times and was thrice denied.
I asked again without my pride
And found I’d lost that world I’d lived
Returned as one now broken,

To a crumb, a rag, a withered leaf
In the chilly winds of cold relief
I knew myself as I had been,
As from a dream awoken.

And so and so it goes.

But then… a crack appeared inside a wall
And a door sprang up around it.