Monday, January 26, 2009

Here is a poem I read and think about. I heard it from a Canadian - now a US citizen - named Brian Tracy.
The third - is it "stanza?" - or "verse?" - is less known.
I have this somewhat memorized - especially the second verse, beginning with - "Life is queer with it's twists and turns . . ." This rings true for me. It reminds me that things that seem bad now - are not really bad in the long run. In fact, they turn out to be good.
The poem has gotten me through some tough parts of life. I opened up on of my repeatable journals - books where I copy text and make notes of certain books I like and reread them - and saw this poem this morning.
It made me feel good. Read this, print it out and post it on your refrigerator or in your journal. I think you may be able to use this.
Don't Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all up hill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up, though the pace seems slow -
You might succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup.
And he learned too late, when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out
- The silver tint of the clouds of doubt -
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst that you mustn't quit.
- Author Unknown -

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh I love that poem. Thanks for posting it. I had seen it a long time ago and was hoping to find it again.

Remember, there can be no courage without fear. So when you pray for courage, be ready for a dose of fear too.

Suzanne

Wait. What? said...

When I was a teenager - I had a teacher who showed me this poem, and I memorized it for years, but of course as with life things get ut away until you need them again, it was nice being reminded.

Thank you!

Anonymous said...

The author of this poem is Edgar A. Guest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Guest

Syd said...

Great poem. I've never been a quitter. But sometimes I think that I might have needed to quit rather than to continue banging my head against the wall of alcoholism.

Anonymous said...

It's cute, thanks for posting it. Yeah, Syd, me too. I love to forge ahead -- just to keep my feet busy -- it's part of my personality that I really like but at the same time, the sick part of me also uses it as an excuse to try to force solutions. (Do I sound like I'm working a 4th step? Sadly, I'm not; just procrastinating.)

Anonymous said...

thank you, thank you thank you