Inside the Garden Gate

There’s a special place that I now recall Both secret and safe in a garden wall, Far my favorite space when I was small Was that wooden gate in the garden wall. And there beneath that garden way One million tears were washed away And drained themselves into the ground To gain the solace I have found. When I’ve spied a spot with a hidden door That may lead to the rest I’m reaching for, The sight of a hedge by a garden gate Is the knowledge that mellows oft too late. One entrance in a crumbling wall Was childhood’s fancy to recall While shadows cast upon the ground Did guard the peace that patience found. The permanence I ‘d felt inside that gate Where no words alone could ever relate In the simple fare of my life would be Like an endless rope of eternity. I’ve often thought as I recalled The lonely times when I was small, I’d lift my wings and follow play And swing my early cares away. Ten thousand timeless heads bobbed in the breeze And shook in the wind and laughed in the trees, Amidst delphiniums all blue and pink I’d wait for that sun to just rise or sink To seek what hides past that garden wall Where hollyhocks grew so bright and tall, There beyond the pulse of nature’s lush Life slumbered deep in a twilight’s hush. There’s many a gate in many a wall That has been childhood’s option to recall When time’s swift shadow played hide and seek My simple fears had some courage to speak. Full many a turn has come about Since those youthful years pursued by doubt Where the wishing days of life would be Bound to each one’s goal with piety. Now much time has flown and it’s far too late To play in the yard and swing on the gate, For the wall is gone and there in its place Structures of brick with no smiles on their face. Portals of magic beckon still With aspirations dreams fulfill, The useful aim of one’s end should be Some gate that waits for posterity.