John Clare verse

I like this. It takes me back to some good times....

Why can't a gray haired dreamer

who wanders slowly along the

lanes of his garden of memories,

realize he's wandered

too far away from the

pleasures of his boyhood days.

Will he ever know again

the joys and laughter he did

when he was a boy?

He'd better stop

and remember when he

was a barefoot carefree kid.

Let him stop by the creek,

take his shoes off and wiggle

his toes in the mud again,

and be free of all the

restrictions of a man.

Just forget all the

riches he has won,

and all the struggle and

strife through his life,

and be again the carefree boy

he can see in his dreams.

Stretched out on the banks

of a fishing stream,

with not a worry in the world,

remembering the splendours

that surround him,

as they seem to

rise and taunt him,

with memories of his

boyhood that has fled.

The richest man in the world

has lost the greatest

treasures life can bestow,

if he never, ever slows

down enough to dream

of when he was a boy again.