Poetry on Leadership

which are you...?

Tearing Down Or Building Up?

I watched them tearing a building down,
A gang of men in a busy town;
With a heave-ho and a lusty yell
They swung a beam, and the building fell.

I asked the foreman, "Are these men skilled,
And the men you’d hire if you had to build?"
He gave a laugh and said, "No, indeed,
Just common labor is all I need;
I can easily wreck in a day or two
What builders have taken a year to do."

And I thought to myself as I went my way,
Which of these roles have I tried to play?
Am I a builder who works with care,
Measuring life by the rule and square?

Am I shaping my deeds to a well-made plan,
Patiently doing the best I can?
Or am I a wrecker who walks the town,
Content with the labor of tearing down?

Roe Parham Fulkerson (1870-1949)