Bring Me Men!

As I enter the High Sierra, I face some new challenges: snow, cold, thunder storms, and mosquitoes! I have hiked in the High Sierra many times, but never this early in the season. It will be a true adventure! Here is a poem that inspired me. I hope it does the same for you.

Bring me men to match my mountains,

Bring me men to match my plains,

Men with empires in their purpose,

And new eras in their brains.

Bring me men to match my prairies,

Men to match my inland seas,

Men whose thoughts shall pave a highway

Up to ampler destinies,

Pioneers to cleanse thought’s marshlands,

And to cleanse old error’s fen;

Bring me men to match my mountains –

Bring me men!

Bring me men to match my forests,

Strong to fight the storm and beast,

Branching toward the skyey future,

Rooted on the futile past.

Bring me men to match my valleys,

Tolerant of rain and snow,

Men within whose fruitful purpose

Time’s consummate blooms shall grow,

Men to tame the tigerish instincts

Of the lair and cave and den,

Cleanse the dragon slime of nature –

Bring me men!

Bring me men to match my rivers,

Continent cleansers, flowing free,

Drawn by eternal madness,

To be mingled with the sea –

Men of oceanic impulse,

Men whose moral currents sweep

Toward the wide, unfolding ocean

Of an undiscovered deep –

Men who feel the strong pulsation

Of the central sea, and then

Time their currents by its earth throbs –

Bring me men.

by Sam Walter Foss