Speech to The Young: Speech to the Progress-toward (among them Nora and Henry III)

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (June 7, 1917 – December 3, 2000)

Speech to the Young: Speech to the Progress-toward (among them Nora and Henry III)

Say to them,
say to the down-keepers,
the sun-slappers,
the self-soilers,
the harmony-hushers,
“Even if you are not ready for day
if cannot always be night.”
You will be right.
For that is the hard home-run.
Live not for the battles won.
Live not for the-end-of-the-song.
Live in the along.