By Helen Lowrie Marshall
A few brave ones down through the years
Have dared to dream past others’ fears;
Have dared to bridge the span between;
The known and unknown, unseen;
Have pushed on without hue or cry
In constant quest of ‘how’ and ‘why’;
Have probed the microscopic small;
Have faced the grim, forbidding wall
Of ignorance, disease and fear,
Acknowledging none as their peer;
Have led a timid world by hand
Into a strange, uncharted land.
Interpreters of God’s great scheme
Are these–the brave who dare to dream.
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I found a copy of Close to the Heart, from which this poem is taken, among the belongings of a relative. It was inscribed to my grandmother by the author in 1968. This is the poem I first opened the book to. The ones that my grandmother bookmarked touched my heart as well.