Need help finding a poem

[scouter659]

I'm wondering if anyone is familiar with a little poem about rope and the analogy drawn in the verses is all about the ties that bind friendship in Scouting. I used this poem for the last few years at the end of our Troop JLT course and I seemed to have misplaced it. If someone out there knows what I'm talking about or has a copy or can provide a link where I might find it I would appreciate it. I believe I found it once somewhere in the vast collections of Scoutmaster Minutes on the web but I have checked the major ones and can't seem to locate it. I check out the forums every few weeks and have often replied to issues and have also been helped with many opinions. Thanks for taking the time to read this and hope that someone out there may be familiar with this little, but very meaningful little poem. Thanks! I'll be checking for replies late tonight and tomorrow. Good Scouting to you all.

[Scoutmaster Ron]

I like to collect S.m. minutes and will look thru my collection to see if I can help you out.

[scouter659]

HOLD EVERYTHING! I found it. I am preparing for the end of our year-long Troop JLT course and I really like to use this poem...can't believe I misplaced it. I'd like to share it with you all & I'll explain how I use it. The JLT candidates are lined up and each get a piece of nylon rope about 8 inches long and we ask, "What can you do with a piece of rope like that"? We get a few answers but then we ask each boy to tie a square knot to the next one, and the end of the rope to the next boy and so on. When it is one long length we ask them again and get a host of great answers. We then read them this:

I picked some scraps of rope apart

To see how they were made.

Most of it was twisted hemp

Yet some was cotton braid.

And from the stuff I played with

I thought aloud, "Rope size runs

To hawsers that hold battleships

of fifty thousand tons.

But there's another kind of rope

Not made by a machine.

Stronger than the best steel cable

Yet so fine it can't be seen.

I'm not talking of the kind of rope

That anybody buys.

But the magic line of friendship

That holds two friendly guys.

I learned a lot of things at camp

But the best trick that I got

Was to take that line of friendship

And tie the proper knot.

(Author Unknown)

Since some of you may have gone through the trouble of looking I thought it responsible to share it since I FOUND IT!

Thanks and enjoy!

[FScouter]

"The Magic Rope"

http://www.macscouter.com/TrulyScouting/ThingsScouting.html#Magic%20Rope