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)