A Bag of Tools
A note from James D. Sutton:
Here is a poem by R. Lee Sharpe I often use to close the program "The Conduct Disordered Child." It is from the book Masperpieces of Religion Verse, edited by James Dalton Morrison (Harper, 1948). My thanks to Steve Marx for helping me find the reference. I have known and used the poem for years, but was not able to locate it in print. Recently I was informed by Tom Lagana of Wilmington, Delaware, that the poem was also included the book Poems that Touch the Heart, which was compiled by A. L. Alexander (Doubleday, 1941 and 1956).
I am also thankful to Cindy Van Etta who emailed me an extensive history of Sharpe, to whom she is related. He was born in the 1870s and died in the 1950s. For years he worked with his father, Edwin R. Sharpe, who owned The Carrollton Free Press and a printing shop in Carrollton, Georgia. In his later years he traveled a lot, mostly freelancing for magazines of the '20s and '30s.
Isn't it strange how princes and kings,
and clowns that caper in sawdust rings,
and common people, like you and me,
are builders for eternity?
Each is given a list of rules;
a shapeless mass; a bag of tools.
And each must fashion, ere life is flown,
A stumbling block, or a Stepping-Stone.
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