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.