John Porter Fort: A Memorial, and Personal Reminiscences

A Memorial and Personal Reminiscences
The Knickerbocker Press
New York 1918
Copyright, 1918 BY MARTHA F. FORT
The reminiscences of his life and work were dictated to me by my father during the summer of 1916. He touched only upon the main events. There are countless unmentioned things that would add to this story of a wonderfully full life, but I leave it just as he told it to me as we sat together on the porch, or in the library by the open wood fire. To these I have added a few tributes and some clippings from Georgia newspapers.
Martha Fannin Fort.
Jno P. Fort

The sweep of sky at eventide That melts within the majesty of pine; The hush that breathes serenity of space Where summer twilights linger long In benediction; Beauty of leaf and bird, Of blossom and star, Of sea and furrowed lands, Of storm that cracks the mountain peak to flame;— These were his soul which reaching held the universe Within the circle of his brotherhood. To their haunts they called him,— Note of thrush And wild heart of the trees. There 'mid glooms of cypress brooding moss And lakes of ebon pearl, With shy wood denizens and mist of boughs He met his God. Day beckoned him, and forth among the fields He stepped and sowed his spirit. Sowed that man might eat and live and thank the Lord, Giver of all good gifts. And as of old did Jacob dig a well, And Moses smite to life the desert rock, So with prophetic eye He saw the hidden rivers of the earth, And brought forth drink, Praising the kind Beneficence who fills All nature with his plenteousness, Flashing anew the ensign of his life That man is made to overcome the world. Years sped on and still his soul unfurled From out the snowy petals of his dreams, Still buds burst greening from his pruning hook And little children smiled In answer to the welcome of his voice. While from the sky The titmouse came, Leaving her nest and company of wings To perch upon the friendship of his hands. And so Through victory of his spirit barrens bloom And earth unlocks her prisoned waters, And places that he knew are touched with light As from diffused transcendence of his life And hallowed by the passing of his feet.