When I Was Ten or So

When I was ten or so

I owned a woods - a river too,

And overhead, it all was mine,

That vast expanse of blue;

Horizons were unlimited

Where I could see and see -

Oh, I was rich in God's estate,

This all belonged to me!

My world was drifting leisurely,

When I was ten or so;

Why, I'd spend hours, still, alone,

And watch the river go;

I knew its shallows and its deeps,

Its gentle undertow;

The place to wade and where to swim

And how the currents flow.

I was a great explorer, then,

And on my hands and knees

Crawled into thickets, dank and coo,

And had my special trees

Where I would climb and sit aloof

Like some prodigious bird;

I knew the make of every nest

And each bird-call I heard!

To reminisce brings longing thought,

A wish to once again

Go wandering through that estate

I claimed when i was ten,

But threads from which we weaves our dreams

Shrink with each passing year -

I wouldn't want my river dwarfed

Or my woods to appear

A fringe of trees along a stream;

It was so big to me -

I'll carry in my heart the way

My childish eyes could see!
And when the times seem strenuous,

In memory I'll go,

Meand'ring through the day I knew

When I was ten or so.

 ~ Esther Kem Thomas