Month: May 2026

IF

“if you can

keep your head

when all about you

are losing theirs

and blaming it

on you

if you can

trust yourself

when all men doubt you

but make allowance

for their doubting, too

if you can

wait

and not be tired

by waiting

or being lied about

don’t deal in lies

or being hated

don’t give way to hating

and yet

don’t look too good

nor talk too wise

if you can dream

and not make dreams your master

if you can think

and not make thoughts your aim

if you can meet

with Triumph and Disaster

and treat those two impostors

just the same

if you can bear

to hear the truth you’ve spoken

twisted by knaves

to make a trap for fools

or watch the things

you gave your life to

broken

and stoop

and build ’em up

with worn-out tools

if you can make

one heap of all your winnings

and risk it

on one turn

of pitch-and-toss

and lose

and start again

at your beginnings

and never

breathe a word

about your loss

if you can force

your heart

and nerve

and sinew

to serve your turn

long after they are gone

and so hold on

when there is nothing in you

except the Will which says to them

‘Hold on!’

if you can talk

with crowds

and keep your virtue

or walk with kings

nor lose

the common touch

if neither foes

nor loving friends

can hurt you

if all men count with you

but none too much

if you can fill

the unforgiving minute

with sixty seconds’

worth

of distance run

yours is the earth

and everything

that’s in it

and

which is more

you’ll be a man

my son”

Poet Rudyard Kipling

(i have lived every single syllable of this transforming poem since reciting it in a high school graduation speech in May of 1991 … 35 years ago … jest yesterday)

The Return

and low

after all

the weight of snow

and searing sun

wicked wind

and raging walls of water

lies a speck of sand

at the bottom

of the sea

were it dust

it would float on up

and away

to another land

in time

but circumstantial seas

buried it beneath

the depths of oceans

far and wide

forgotten there

over time

the bygone traveler

just begun

takes a turn round the bend

to sail the stars

in search of life

where it starts

where it ends

stirring up the surface

where the sun and moon

are mirrored

it leaves a wake

the speck of sand

then can take

to travel up

from the depths

through the coral reef

and strands of weed

to break the surface

like a wild whale

racing with the wind

one heads to the blue beyond

the other to the shore

where castles

there

are built by hand

in a magic winter

wonderland

TL

he’s gone …

with the wind

TL

(Nov. 19, 1938 – May 6, 2026)