The Bridge Builder

Veiled, Franklin Arts

An old man, going a lone highway,

Came, at the evening, cold and gray,

To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,

Through which was flowing a sullen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim;

The sullen stream had no fear for him;

But he turned, when safe on the other side,

And built a bridge to span the tide.

Storseisundet Bridge aka the bridge to nowhere, A portion of the Norway Atlantic Road

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim, near,

“You are wasting strength with building here;

Your journey will end with the ending day;

You never again will pass this way;

You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide-

Why build you this bridge at the evening tide?”

Bridge, 2005, Art by Lena

The builder lifted his old gray head:

“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,

“There followeth after me today,

A youth, whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm, that has been naught to me,

To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.

He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;

Good friend, I am building this bridge for him.” 

Sienna, Jason de Caires Taylor, Grenada, West Indies

~By Will Allen Dromgoole

How often do we use bridges as metaphors? When I read this poem which a Linkedin user posted on a thread by Jean Tubridy I was inspired to blog.  I thought of all the things we say and think using bridges:

'The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which bridges to burn.' ~ David Russell

We use 'water under the bridge' to say that we are done or over something that hurt us.

'Go to the truth beyond the mind. Love is the bridge.' ~ Stephen Levine

'Your problem is to bridge the gap which exists between where you are now and the goal you intend to reach.' ~ Earl Nightingale

Love builds a bridge...

and a personal favorite by Dr. David N. Perkins on art education: 'If most disciplines dig moats, art builds bridges.'

Brooklyn Bridge, Leroy Neiman