I don't know the author of the following poem, so I can't give the necessary credit to the deserving writer. But ever since I first heard this poem, it's been one of my favorites. It's message is obvious.

An old man, traveling a lone highway,
Came at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm vast and deep and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fear for him;
But he turned when safe on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.

"Old man," said a pilgrim standing near,
"You are wasting your strength in building here;
Your journey will end with the closing day;
You never again will pass this way.

You have crossed the chasm deep and wide;
Why build this bridge at eventide?"

The builder lifted his old gray head:
"Good friend, in the path I've come," he said,
"There followeth after me today
A youth whose feet must pass this way;

The chasm that has been as naught to me
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be;
He too must cross in the twilight dim,
Good friend, I'm building this bridge for him."

Lonnie Ritchie

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