Classic Poem

for William Gable

This is stock taking day:
In a world of things this is the first day of the year:
But what have I to do with a world of things?
My world is a world of men: my world is a world of hearts:
When things become men, when things become hearts, then I'll have something more to do with a world of things
I say to you, dear brother: very well: take account of stock:
And while you are taking account of stock I will take account of you
I do not say that it's not worth while to take account of stock:
I say that it's more worth while to take account of men:
In the days and the years when you were building up a center of trade,
In the days of the growing visible witness of your success and power,
Something greater still was going on down your way:
Something infinitely more significant, more beautiful:
What was it, dear brother? can you guess? can you guess?
It was you, dear brother: you were going on:
You were building up — you — the divine human loving simple man:
You were building up majestically out of all the past:
Side by side with your store, back of your store, under your store, you were building up:
You, the foundation of all: you were building up:
And there are many who see the store today who do not see you:
And there are many who do not know that the store's today grew out of your yesterday:
And they do not know as well as you know and I know that the store today is worth no more than a bushel of shavings:
As you know and I know — as certainly I know if you do not know — that you could not be bought with a thousand stores.
So it is, dear brother, that as you take account of stock I take account of you:
And while you are reckoning up goods I am reckoning up a man
What do I care for your store or another store or any array of wealth?
Nothing — nothing — nothing: it comes to no more than stubble and desert sand:
But you, dear brother: you, the maker of stores: you amount to a lot and everything:
And so when we come to our totals I leave you far behind:
Figure however high you cant figure goods as high as a man:
And so when we come to meanings I leave you way behind:
Dig deep as you choose in goods for a meaning you cant dig to the meaning of a man
Yes, there is love in the store: you put it there: goods never put it there:
But the love in you leaves the love in the store way behind:
Try as you might you could not get all your love into a store:
The store wouldn't let you, goods wouldn't let you, merchants wouldn't let you:
Struggle as you may you cant struggle altogether free of goods: nobody can:
Today goods are in league against the soul: that is why the soul puts goods second:
But when goods go in league with the soul then goods too may get nearer first and enjoy real honors.

You are taking account of stock: I am taking account of a man:
I too have use for goods but I have more use for a man:
And I dare say, brother, that my job has been harder than yours
Think what a man is — then try to count him up!
Think of what he leads from, what he leads to — then try to count him up!
Think of his passions, his loves, his bad and good — then try to count him up!
Think of his brain, of his heart, of his appetites — then try to count him up!
Think of his joys and despairs, his victories and defeats — then try to count him up!
Think of his wrestles with himself in the darkness, of his thwarted ideals — then try to count him up!
Think of the things in a man and about a man that dont go right — then try to count him up!
Think of the pure things in a man that are taken for foul — then try to count him up!
I do not refuse to think of the goods in a store: no: and I count them up:
And you know and I know, dear brother, that the things in a store can be counted up:
But the things in a man, the multitude of his parts and plans — they can never be counted up:
Doing the best you can you tell me what the store is worth —
But I, doing the best I can, cant tell what you are worth:
For the worth of a store has its limit and you can count to a limit,
But the worth of a man, the maker of a store, has no limit: it can never be counted by any skill:
So that while I do not give you up I say a man, you, are too much for me: there are no figures for you:
I stand in awe before a man: he mounts so high — the meanest man mounts so high
So we have taken stock, both of us, dear brother, today:
You have taken stock of the store and you know what it comes to:
I have taken stock of you: my heart's love was in it: but I dont know what you come to:
The store at the best comes to so little a few sentences will tell of it:
But you — you come to so much that no accumulation of words would do more than begin to tell of you.
This is stock taking day.