On the Passing of John Kelley

In the obituary that appeared in The Day, it was mentioned that upon the occasion of his induction into the National Distance Running Hall of Fame in Utica, N.Y., in 2002, John Kelley read from “The Song of the Ungirt Runners”

We swing ungirded hips
And lighten’d are our eyes,
The rain is on our lips,
We do not run for prize.
We know not whom we trust
Nor whitherward we fare,
But we run because we must
Through the great wide air.
The waters of the seas
Are troubled as by storm.
The tempest strips the trees
And does not leave them warm.
Does the tearing tempest pause?
Do the tree-tops ask it why?
So we run without a cause
’Neath the big bare sky.
The rain is on our lips,
We do not run for prize.
But the storm the water whips
And the wave howls to the skies.
The winds arise and strike it
And scatter it like sand,
And we run because we like it
Through the broad bright land.

– Charles Hamilton Sorley