Failure is the penalty,

for continually getting things wrong.

Success on the other hand is the award,

for getting things continually right.

Failure puts you down in despair.

Success sends you soaring among the clouds.

Therefore, I look at myself and wonder,

am I a success or failure.
Then maybe I am a bit of both.
Whichever way the hammer falls
only you can decide.

by David Harris

The Road Not Taken

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BY R O B E R T F R O S T

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Mother to Son
BY L A N G S T O N HU G H E S

Well, son, I’ll tell you:

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now—
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

Do you know why there are people in the ranks who stay in the ranks?

Do you know why there are people who never go up the ladder?

Do you know why there are people who never succeed?

Do you know why?

I’ll tell you why.

I’ll tell you why there are