Progressive Dairyman Editor Walt Cooley received the following poem from Stephen Miller from Belle Center, Ohio, in response to his July 1, 2015, editorial entitled, “It’s my birthday.”

He references why it was a special birthday gift here.

Dear friend, you made me stop and think
Then grab my paper and some ink
Because in every one of us, who live our lives without a fuss,
We still would really like to know,
If there are fruits of what we sow.

Or if our efforts are in vain,
Or maybe like the summer rain
And yet I know we need this rain, for growing grass or making grain,
‘Cause even flowers soon would die
If all the earth were brown and dry.

For even God within His word
Does tell us plain and we have heard:
That as the rain watereth so there indeed will be no more dearth,
So it will bring forth bud and seed
And then there’s bread for those in need.

And as the word that goeth forth
Will bring some fruit, we know, of course
Nor will it ever come back void, for everywhere it is employed,
It will accomplish what it should
And someday bring forth right and good.

And who of us can ever know
To what extent the seed we sow
Will fall upon the fertile ground, away from stones and thorns be found,
And maybe yield a hundredfold
My friend those things we are not told.

But we, my friend, are called to write
And so indeed to spread the light
And then in truth illuminate, the path that folks should really take,
For what we write with pen and ink
It seems will make the people think.

For things we with the eye behold
Get planted deep within the soul
And someday there the seed will sprout, and like a flame that’s not put out
Will spread and kindle other fire
And soon those flames are leaping higher.

And other folks will see the light
And then they too will choose the right
And so my friend now rest in peace, for God your labors will increase
For we are only called to sow
Then God will bless and make it grow.

PHOTO: Staff photo.