This poem is displayed on a bronze plaque attached to a building
at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Henrietta New York where
I used to teach night school in the Graduate School of Management.
As a general rule I don't like poetry, but this is a great poem.
It rhymes pretty and has a great point about massive egos, perfect
for a University campus:
There is no irreplaceable man
Sometime when you're feeling important,
Sometime when your ego's in bloom,
Sometime when you take it for granted,
You're the best qualified man in the room.
Sometime when you think that your passing
Will leave an un-fillable hole,
Just remember this simple example,
And see how it humbles your soul.
Take a bucket and fill it
with water,
Put your
hand in up to your wrists,
The hole that you make when you leave it,
Is the measure of how much you'll be missed.
You may thrash all you want when you enter,
You may stir up the waters galore,
But just wait for a moment
And it is still the same as before.
The moral of this is quite
simple,
Just do the
best that you can.
But please always remember
There is no irreplaceable man
Attributed to Saxon N. White Kessinger, 1959