A Bright and Wise Poem

I once knew an old monk who recited poems constantly, often repetitiously. One of his poems concerned the world around us. It is a delightful and very contemplative poem:

You're a big, wide, beautiful, wonderful world

With wonderful waters around you curled

With wonderful grass upon your breast

World, you are beautifully dressed!

The wonderful clouds are over me

The wonderful wind is shaking the trees

It walks on the waters and whirls the mills

And talks to itself on top of the hills

Ah, you are so great, and I am so small

I tremble to think of you world, at all

But as I was saying my prayers today

A voice inside of me seemed to say

You are more than the world

Though you are but a dot

For you can love and think

But the world cannot!