On certain days, my walk to work takes me past a bench that has the following words engraved on it, "O commemorate me with no hero-courageous Tomb - just a canal-bank seat for the passer-by". The wooden bench doesn't give credit to who wrote those words, but thanks to Google, a simple search reveals them to be from a poem by Patrick Kavanagh.

It's one of my favorite benches in the downtown area. It sits next to Discovery Meadow, under the tree, near the bank of the Guadalupe River, which isn't really a canal-bank, but was the best that San Jose could muster. The bench was actually part of a gift from Dublin, Ireland, one of its sister cities.

It isn't the most comfortable bench in the world, but it's the words, not the ergonomics, that get me every time. They seem to imbue the bench with a humble spirit, one whose final wish was to offer a place to rest to anyone walking by. That spirit also gives the bench a welcoming feeling. On certain days, before work or at lunch, I accept its invitation and enjoy its hospitality for a respite.