A SHORT, much-loved poem about heavenly  provision is now the object of a very earthly squabble.

Footprints, which portrays a doubting believer being reassured by Jesus, is widely considered to have been authored by Coquitlam evangelist Margaret Fishback Powers.

According to the National Post, Powers said she wrote the poem in 1964 under another title, but then “lost her original copy.”

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But 20 years later, she “saw a very similar version of the poem for sale in a bookshop       . . . Somehow, it had fallen into someone else’s hands. She decided to reclaim it.” She  registered it for U.S. copyright soon after it was published in a book of her poetry in 1989.

In mid-May, New York resident Basil Zangare filed a lawsuit in a U.S. court, claiming his mother, Mary Stevenson, wrote the original poem. He is claiming all profits from the poem for his mother’s estate. Powers could not be reached for comment.       – DFD

June 2008