Regarding "Runners"

Mom says that Dad was electrified by this poem and told her that he thought it exemplified the best of her work.

RUNNERS

Two by two, in fellowship 

Backs wet with sweat,

And hair awry above the band

That aids the brow in keeping salty droplet from the eye…

You run along the highway

Dogged, building heart and muscle

To the task.

I ponder as I pass.

You were made to run the world

In search of game to feed yourself

And others.  Your bodies built for strength,

You marked out trails and found

The means to eat and sleep and safely

With another bring to life from seed,

Sons and daughters!

Who gave you such a role?

Where is the path now , as you run?

Oh, brave young men, it’s just begun.

A new world has grown across

This ancient globe.

The trails that told you once

What could be done

With nature’s pattern that unfolds

Within you from your first beginning

Have grown cold.

It is confusion now and clamor.

Information much like lotus leaf

Is touted, but it  leads to grief.

But run, there‘s strength within.

Where truth is hidden, it must  out!

Look in and listen,

For all our human foibles are the same

That history has seen in costume strange

To us; but still, new ways lead back

To old beginnings, where lies the trail

Well watered with the sweat and tears

Of centuries.  You have the feet to trod

The highway that leads back to God.