Mine Is a Wide Estate

I am wealthy with earth and sky,

Heir to far boundaries of field and stream,

And scarce can keep track of so much property:

Cloud-herd, dew-diamond, midge, and bee,

Wasp-way, wind’s wisdom, and the foxfire’s gleam—

I am rich despite a seeming poverty.

Mine is a wide estate. It is a legal jest.

These are a neighbor’s hills, those a stranger’s.

Who owns the water’s speech, the hornet’s nest,

The catbird’s mew, the grassy breath in mangers,

And who in cricket song and mayfly nymphs invest?

I am possessor and possessed.