To My Grandfather, Clement Lewis Rawlins Sr.
I recall visiting the farm when I was much younger with my parent and it seemed to have a special certain beauty. Coming from the desert and from Las Vegas I loved the mountains--and the flowing streams and the fields of grain, arid corn were all very beautiful. But as I grew older I realized that there was a certain kind of a special glow about the farm here in Lewiston. And perhaps--somewhat in retrospect--I realize that much of that glow is due to the character of my grandfather. He was a man--not a loud man - -I think he was a quiet man and a man with a very deep grip on life and on the responsibilities, the pain, the stress that we all endure. I realize now the humor, and the strength, and the courage he showed in his daily life can serve as an example to all of us and particularly to some of us younger people.
To close, I would like to give you a little poem. It was written a Japanese poet in the sixteenth century on his deathbed.
On a journey, ill
But over fields all withered
Dreams go onward still.
_____Clem Lewis Rawlins, III