If you should happen, on your way,
To pass beyond the pavement
To find your freedom, for a time,
From brick and beam enslavement
If you should drift out far enough,
You’ll come to be recaptured
Within a hall of ageless trees,
And find yourself enraptured.
If you should wander there, my child,
Keep careful watch, and listen.
Take heed of every rustling leaf,
Each dew drop as it glistens.
Hold fast, and feel the solid earth
Sink slightly underneath you,
Breathe in the scents of time and space
And let their swell enwreath you.
The magic of this world does not
Reside in concrete plaster
That we construct to wall us in
And hem us from disaster.
It is out there, in rising tides
And plunging roots of mountains,
It flies across the vibrant skies
And falls in crystal fountains.
If you should roam out far enough
That you escape our edges,
If you can wander through our world
And plummet from its ledges,
Then fall away, my daring love,
And seize the scattered magic.
For wasting here within these walls
Is nothing short of tragic.

– s. Clark