Written for the LOTR Community "Lyrical Love" challenge.  A riddle poem.  For RabidSamFan for her birthday.

A World in Hand

’Tis lackwit’s bane but Baggins’ treasure,
the greatest means to spend one’s leisure.
To sluggards a slog, a bore beyond measure;
to the wise a journey sought after with pleasure.

When small it yet can encompass the world.
When great may focus on but one bud uncurled.
Commanding it may be like a banner unfurled,
or soothing as water about a sore body swirled.

To distant lands it may carry one away,
where strange folk love and labor and play.
It might bring the night into the light of the day,
or cause one to pause, to ponder—and pray.

One might find a mountain to hold in one’s hand,
or crouch in deep caverns where dragons command,
or by side of great kings awaiting battle to stand,
or watch brave warriors by terror unmanned.

Not all will end happy or joyful or with hope.
The best seem to offer ideas with which to cope;
better the puzzles for whose solutions we grope.
Those are the ones I most often ope.