As sharp as in my childhood

[thestorygirl]

As sharp as in my childhood, still
Ecstasy shocks me fixed.  The will
Cannot entice it, never could,
So never tries.  But from the wood
The wind will hurl the clashing sleet;
Or a small fawn with lovely feet,
Uncertain in its gait, will walk
Among the ferns, not breaking back
One frond, not bruising one fern black,
Into the clearing, and appraise
With mild, attracted, wondering gaze,
And lifted head unhurt and new,
This world that he was born into.

Such marvels as, one time, I feared
Might go, and leave me unprepared
For hardship.  But they never did.
They blaze before me still, as wild
And clear, as when I was a child.

They never went away at all,
I need not, though I do, recall
Such moments in my childhood, when
Wonder sprang out at me again,
And took me by the heels, and whirled
Me round and round above the world.

For wonder leaps upon me still,
And makes me dizzy, makes me ill,
But never frightened--for I know--
Not where--but in whose hands I go :
The lovely fingers of Delight
Have hold of me and hold me tight.

Edna St. Vincent Millay