I never really liked the farm,
The endless tasks, the meager funds.
But now I see things differently--
From afar the drudgery's gone.

I see instead the lovely trees,
Smell the fresh-turned soil;
Watch the straining team ahead,
The flowing earth below.

I feel the strength of growing things,
Of Nature's law in force;
The gratitude so dormant then
Wells up within me now.

I see the black-green fields of corn,
The cotton in full bloom;
So much I took for granted then--
I saw but did not see.

The chores I thought so burdensome,
I'd love to do them now,
Relive the joys unrecognized,
Make real remembering.



Walter Darmon King