Gwendolyn Brooks: "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

it cannot always be night.”

You will be right.

For that is the hard home-run.

Live not for battles won.

Live not for The-End-of-the-Song.

Live in the along.

"Speech to the Young, Speech to the Progress-Toward (Among them Nora and Henry III) by Gwendolyn Brooks, from Blacks (Third World Press, 1991). 

Art credit: "Tightrope Walker," digital painting by roweig.