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Mother to Son
BY L A N GS TO N H U 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.

Langston Hughes, "Mother to Son" from The Collected Works of Langston

Hughes. Copyright © 2002 by Langston Hughes. Reprinted by permission
of Harold Ober Associates, Inc.

Source: The Collected Works of Langston Hughes (University of Missouri

Press (BkMk Press), 2002)

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