Unrealised and unknown realms of joy,

We are so old before we learn how vain

Our effort was, how fruitlessly we cast

Our Bread upon the waters, and how weak

Our hearts were, but our chance desires how strong!

Then, in the dark, our sense of light decays;

We cannot cry to God as once we cried!

Lost in the gloom, our faith, perhaps our love,

Lies dead with years that never can return.

But Michael Oaktree was a man whose love