Written on the occasion of the death of John
Oyler, whose life was brief, but, of greater value than he ever knew.
To John
Life is a vapor, the Bible
said,
That appears for a moment and
vanishes away,
Some are like wisps of
smoke.
Quietly they live and
quietly die,
And gently are wafted away.
Some are like clouds of
steam—
White and billowy against
the azure sky.
Grandly they live, and
grandly die.
But some are like dark smoke—
Tossing and turbulent
effulgence
Of blast furnace and
factory.
Charging the bright blue
sky,
They challenge its tranquil
illusions,
And leave behind shafts of
steel, and myriads of goods.
And such was John—grappling
with life.
Struggling, striving,
winning, losing.
Remember not clouds of
smoke, but shafts of steel.
David
Morsey
(November 2 1981)