A Bag of Tools

Don't we sometimes read something that makes us think? Perhaps a paragraph, a poem, or some prose? Many years ago, I came across a short poem in my father's collection of snippets, by an unknown poet called R.L. Sharpe. 

Isn't it strange that princes and kings
And clowns that caper in sawdust rings
And common people like you and me
Are builders for eternity ?
 
Each is given a bag of tools
A shapeless mass
A book of rules
And each must make ere time has flown
A stumbling block or a stepping stone.