Three Poems that will Change Your Life
The Road Ahead or the Road Behind
George Moriarty
Sometimes I think the fates must grin
As we denounce them and insist,
The only reason we can't win
Is the fates themselves have missed.
Yet there lives on the ancient claim
We win or lose within ourselves,
The shining trophies on the shelves
Can never win tomorrow's game.
So you and I know deeper down
There is a chance to win the crown
But when we fail to give our best,
We simply haven't met the test,
Of giving all and saving none
Until the game is really won.
Of showing what is meant by grit,
Of fighting on when others quit.
Of playing through not letting up,
It's bearing down that wins the cup.
Of taking it and taking more
Until we gain the winning score,
Of dreaming there's a goal ahead,
Of hoping when our dreams are dead,
Of praying when our hopes have fled.
Yet, losing not afraid to fall,
If bravely we have given all.
For who can ask more of a man
Than giving all within his span.
Giving all, it seems to me,
Is not so far from victory.
And so the fates are seldom wrong,
No matter how they twist and wind.
It's you and I who make our fates,
We open up or close the gates,
To the road ahead or the road behind.
The Little Chap Who Follows Me
Anonymous
A careful man I want to be;
A little fellow follows me.
I do not dare to go astray,
For fear he'll go the self same way.
I cannot once escape his eyes,
Whate'er he sees me do, he tries.
Like me he says he's going to be;
The little chap who follows me.
He thinks that I'm so very fine,
Believes in every word of mine.
The base in me he must not see;
The little chap who follows me.
I must remember as I go,
Through summers' sun and winters' snow,
I'm building for the years to be;
The little chap who follows me.
How to Be A Champion
Grantland Rice
You wonder how they do it.
You look to see the knack.
You watch the foot in action,
Or the shoulder or the back.
But when you spot the answer
Where the higher glamours lurk,
You'll find in moving higher
Up the laurel-covered spire,
That the most of it is practice
And the rest of it is work.
