Life is first wide, then narrow.
The sky is higher when you are a child.
You put your hands to so much, knowing by feel.
Remember that, navigating your dear path.

*

Life is first wondrous, then wonderful.
One thing after another dazzles the child mind.
We mature into refinement, into numbness, 
waiting for that one thing that arrests the eye.

*

Life is first given, then imagined.
The mind makes a world its own,
the body reaches for that mind world.
Inward, outward, a dance of hope.

*

Life is first wide, then narrow. 
The sky is higher for a child, who knows
by putting his hands to things, who grows
to walk his narrow path on his own. 

*

Life is first wonderful, then wondrous.
One thing after another stuns us
into laughter & leaping. Children are numb
to nearly nothing. We grow into that. 

*

Life is first given, then imagined.
All the body has is limits & gravity,
a narrow path rather than a story,
once upon our time.  

_{Inspired by one of the last lines of this poem.}