Once Poem by Paul Reed

'Old age remembers every misty distance
The brook the boy once loved; it's scent of flowers
Comes wafted from it yet with sweet persistence
And builds again for him those vanished hours'

Extract from ‘Places' by Thomas Gold Appleton.

I was a boy, once
Long, long ago,
The cares of the world
I did not know;

I remember those times
With sweet affection,
I go back there often
Again make the connection;

There is a place in my mind
Devoted to those childish rhymes,
That still sings my boyish songs
Still lives those precious times;

And I am going there again
You cannot stop my travel
Your adult binds
I will loosen and unravel;

To my open heart and innocence
I return as aged and wise,
With my burdens of life
That I so despise;

Leave me to my pretending
Leave me to my play
Leave me to my return journey
Back to yesterday.