Poetry Wednesday 'IF'

POETRY WEDNESDAY,
and a little inspiration for all of us.
'if' by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master,
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

if - Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling's inspirational poem - 'If'

Rudyard Kipling's (1865-1936) inspirational poem 'If' first appeared in his collection 'Rewards and Fairies' in 1909. The poem 'If' is inspirational, motivational, and a set of rules for 'grown-up' living. Kipling's 'If' contains rules for life for grown ups. Lines from Kipling's 'If' appear over the player's entrance to Wimbledon's Centre Court – an indication of the poem's timeless  quality
 'If' can be very sad if the reader knows of his awful early life and contrasts this to the inspiration found in the poem. He was unloved and sent away by his parents. He was abused by his foster mother and a failure school. In later life the deaths of two of his children left him destroyed.
When his talents were recognized he turned down many honours  including a knighthood, Poet Laureate and the Order of Merit, but in 1907 he accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature.

ART WORK

Frani Keeley — Small paintings about trees,
These little trees by artist Frani Keeley are unassuming but beautiful and apparently inspired by a quotation from the Buddha, I thought the sentiment sits well with this poem.
 
''A tree is a wonderful living organism . . .
it even gives shade to those who wield an axe to cut it down.''
Buddha