Throwback Thursday

These two poems are that I found and used with my class.  The first is a poem which I was given to my friend Jerry Marsengill. Jerry could recite it from memory.

"There Is No Indispensable Man"

Saxon N. White Kessinger   ^©1959  

Sometime when you're feeling important;

Sometime when your ego's in bloom

Sometime when you take it for granted

You're the best qualified in the room,

Sometime when you feel that your going

Would leave an unfillable hole,

Just follow these simple instructions

And see how they humble your soul;

Take a bucket and fill it with water,

Put your hand in it up to the wrist,

Pull it out and the hole that's remaining

Is a measure of how you will be missed.

You can splash all you wish when you enter,

You may stir up the water galore,

But stop and you'll find that in no time

It looks quite the same as before.

The moral of this quaint example

Is do just the best that you can,

Be proud of yourself but remember,

There's no indispensable man.

The second is one I found in "The Builders" a Masonic Magazine.  I decided that I would have the students memorize it and for several years the students had to memorize and recite to to the class...individually.  I changed it some - changed the "man" to one so that it better reflect the times. There is one "he" I can't remember the one.  Also when I found the poem it was written by Anonymous

If you think you are beaten, you are;

If you think you dare not, you don't;

If you'd like to win, but think you can't,

It's almost a cinch you won't.

If you think you'll lose, you're lost,

For out in the word we find

Success begins with a fellow' person's will,

It's all in the state of mind.

If you think you're outcasted classed, you are;

You've got to think high to rise.

You've got to be sure of yourself before

You can ever win a prize.

Life's battles don't always go

To the stronger or faster man; one;

But soon or later the man one  who wins

Is the man one who thinks he can. 

Walter D. Wintle