My Last Icon Poem by Lynn W. Petty

In Memory of Dan Rogers

During those formidable years of youth, when neither boy nor man,
I patterned my life after the generation that preceded me
as role models of purpose and perseverance, believing
them to be omnipotent and immortal.
Now, one by one, my Icons are falling.
Seeing them die, these redoubtable practitioners
of fortitude and resolution,
made me realize, with reluctant awareness,
they were not gods.
They were human beings who tested
living through their successes and failures,
endeavoring as men and women to endure.

My last Icon lies now, before me, weak and infirmed;
who, in the face of adversity, stood bold and martial
against his aggressors.
Despite his frailty of frame,
I see through the spell-shadow
of his imminent death,
an aura of serious dignity.
A man of simple values, who lived those standards
before I comprehended them as truth:
'To live by the rules and,
that a man's word is his bond.'
How is a man's lifetime to be measured,
except by his contribution to the betterment
of his fellowman?
He has lighted the darkness
Of living by his being here, leaving
a better place than that which was left
to him.
He has won his acclaim.