What would we give
to meet those
who have come before us,
to shake their hands
and ask them their secrets
of how they found success,
to tell them how much
their words have meant
to us, how their courage,
in their time,
to share their gifts,
has created ripples
which reach across decades
and millennia
to comfort lonely souls
who cannot find someone
that speaks their language.
It triggers almost a feeling
of mourning to know
that some conversations
will never be,
but thank God
that those giants of other times
shared themselves
with not only the few
who breathed while they did,
but with the rest of us
who never had that pleasure.
With that said,
I am almost certain
that even if I could
step back in time
and converse with my many teachers,
they would be no more extraordinary
than those alive today,
except in that most important
of traits among men,
that each chose
to subject themselves
to the arrows and ridicule
of their time
in order to share
what had to be shared.
