Tribute to the Small

Some are Suns, and some are Moons, And some of us are Stars; And some of us shine brightly In this universe of ours; The greatest ones shine bright and clear Outshining all the rest; But is it brilliance and size That make the best men best? The Suns are great ones, kings and queens, Heroes and millionaires; They are what common men call great Mixed up in world affairs; The Moons are lesser, dimmer folk Yet still quite widely known; But Stars seem normal to us all Until they’re seen alone. The Suns hold thrones and kingdoms And glow in government; Powerful, just as great Sol Rules in the firmament; But when the darker times are come And blacken out to-day; It’s the Moons that shine the brightest When the Suns have fled away. When the Suns have hid their brilliance Behind the darkened hills; The Moons shine on, undaunted, As the sky grows darker still; But then a day will come at last When even Moons resign; Then the Stars will shine the brightest When there’s nothing else to shine.The Stars are men and women Who have toiled without a word; Who have fought for all creation Quite regardless of reward; They don’t give up no matter how Judicious it may seem; For the Stars can go on dreaming When there’s nothing left to dream. In the darkness pierced by diamonds Black as death but for their light; When the hardest times have driven Suns and Moons from out of sight; When the Infinite surrounds them As it has from the beginning; It’s the Stars that keep on shining. It’s the Stars that keep on winning. In the dim despairing trials That have blackened out the day; That have driven away rejoicing And led other lights astray; In that vague dream called the future Is the undiminished scope Of the things that still can happen When the Stars don’t cease to Hope. And all the great things Suns have done And all the Moons’ great quests Are forgotten in the starlight Piercing through that barrenness; When the biggest things are conquered Which we thought too big to fall; Then the Stars, which seem the smallest, Are the biggest things of all."