The Accomplishment

Today’s entry has a lot to do with my interest in poetry. I have shared some of my poetry writings on this blog site. One of my favorite poems is entitled “The Bridge Builder.” I have shared the rendition of that poem on blog 56. As I have researched the poem, I have discovered what I originally heard, although close to the original, is a little different.

Because I like to write poetry, I have attempted to add some verses to the rendition that I first heard and memorized and then I will add the verses I wrote. What I hope this entry will accomplish is my attempt to take the poem’s thought possibilities to a more accomplished place at least in my own thought process. The beauty, I’m told, is in the eye of the beholder. So as the reader takes in the thought process of the added verses I have written, I hope it will give the reader a new sense of who the Builder really is.

The last four verses are what I have written to relay the Accomplishment. I thank you for your Accomplishments!

An old man going on a weary way
Came at the evening cold and grey
To a chasm vast and deep and wide
Through which there was flowing a swollen tide

The old man crossed in the twilight dim
For the swollen stream held no fear for him
And turned when on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide

Said a fellow pilgrim near
You’re wasting your time with building here
Your journey will end at the close of day
And you never again shall pass this way

The builder lifted his old grey head
Good friend in the way I’ve come, he said
There follows after me a fair-haired youth
And the swollen stream which held no fear for me
For the fair-haired youth may a pit-fall be



So the builder finished the task at hand
To help the youth better understand
When crossing a bridge you did not build
The care of others to instill

For the fair-haired youth it did indeed
Increase awareness of the other’s need
With careful thought to do the same
In building bridges to heal the lame

So as the time has passed away
The youth’s fair hair has turned to grey
For others follow the builder’s trail
To discover a passage through the veil

And before that passage has come to pass
Doing for others will complete the task
For youth to awaken to the bridge's part
Is to discover the love in the Builder’s heart

Last Four Verses by Al Carden