Character Building Prose

Just Me

Nobody sees what I can see,

For back of my eyes there is only me.

And nobody knows how my thoughts begin,

For there's only myself inside my skin.

Isn't it strange how everyone owns

Just enough skin to cover his bones?

My father's would be too big to fit--

I'd be all wrinkled inside of it.

And my baby brother's is much too small--

It just wouldn't cover me up at all.

But I feel just right in the skin I wear,

And there's nobody like me anywhere.

Margaret Hillert, American author and poet

True Greatness

A man is as great as the dreams he dreams,

As great as the love he bears;

As great as the values he redeems,

And the happiness he shares.

A man is as great as the thoughts he thinks,

As the worth he has attained;

As the fountains at which his spirit drinks,

And the insight he has gained.

A man is a great as the truth he speaks,

As great as the help he gives,

As great as the destiny he seeks,

As great as the life he lives.

C.E. Flynn, American author and novelist

If

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 on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe 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, English writer, poet, novelist

The Man in the Glass

When you get what you want in your struggle for self,

And the world make you king for a day,

Just go to the mirror and look at yourself

And see what that man has to say.

For it isn't your father and mother and wife,

Whose judgment upon you must pass.

The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life

Is the one staring back from the glass.

Some people may call you a straight-shooting chum

And call you a wonderful guy,

But the man in the glass says you're only a bum

If you can't look him straight in the eye.

He's the fellow to please, never mind all the rest,

For he's with you clear to the end,

And you have passed your most dangerous test

If the man in the glass is your friend.

You may face the whole world down the pathway of life

And get pats on the back when you pass,

But your final reward will be heartache and strife

If you've cheated the man in the glass.

Dale Wimbrow, American composer, radio artist, writer

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