I rememeber

[wolfe_guardian]

Since I left those woods,
the wood choppers have laid them waste

...but I remember...

I remember.

I remember when I first paddled a boat on Walden;
it was completely surrounded by thick and lofty pine and oak woods,
and in some of its coves
grape vines had run over the trees next the water
and formed bowers under which a boat could pass.

I have spent many an hour floating over its surface
as the zephyr willed in a summer forenoon
dreaming awake,
and though the wood choppers have laid bare
first this shore and then that,
it struck me again tonight,
why here is Walden--
the same woodland lake that I discovered
so many years ago.

Where a forest was cut down last winter
another is springing up
as lustily as ever.
The same thought is welling up to its surface that was then.
It is the same liquid joy to itself and its Maker;
He rounded this water with his hand--
deepened and clarified it with his thought.
I see by its face that it is still visited
by the same reflection,
and I can almost say:

Walden...is it you...?

From: Walden Pond by Dominik Argento; taken from Walden by Henry David Thoreau