An old man, going 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 fears for him;
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.
"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim, near,
"You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again must pass this way;
You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide-
Why build you the bridge at the eventide?"
The builder lifted his old gray head:
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him."
Will Allen Dromgoole was a woman who was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. She wrote over 7,500 poems, 5,000 essays, and published thirteen books.
I never knew of or met the folks on #9 of the list.
Eddie and Donna ran a twig in Columbus, Ohio for decades. They were in one of the very first classes, in the 1950s. I personally knew them. They were genuinely caring people. I don't think they really knew about the depravity that was going on at HQ. Or, maybe they just didn't believe it was true. It's hard to say. I also noticed Ray and Vera Kaderly, from New Lyme, Ohio, are missing.
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WordWolf
I have a question about the content.
I'm curious if they included the poem, "the Bridge Builder," by Ms Will Allen Dromgoole, and, if they did, did they include her name?
I'm thinking they didn't include it, even though it was the reason they picked that name for the book.
Personally, I quoted the poem once on the GSC, when someone asked why we post, warning about twi.
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WordWolf
https://allpoetry.com/The-Bridge-Builder
The Bridge Builder
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 fears for him;
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.
"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim, near,
"You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again must pass this way;
You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide-
Why build you the bridge at the eventide?"
The builder lifted his old gray head:
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him."
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waysider
I'm left wondering why Ermal and Dorothy Owens didn't make the list.
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oldiesman
You're right that's strange, they were prominent in the early years.
Here's a book by Dorothy Owens: https://store.theway.org/store/just-the-way-it-was/
I never knew of or met the folks on #9 of the list.
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waysider
Eddie and Donna ran a twig in Columbus, Ohio for decades. They were in one of the very first classes, in the 1950s. I personally knew them. They were genuinely caring people. I don't think they really knew about the depravity that was going on at HQ. Or, maybe they just didn't believe it was true. It's hard to say. I also noticed Ray and Vera Kaderly, from New Lyme, Ohio, are missing.
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