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.

(C) Gwendolyn Brooks
03/14/2017


Best Poems of Gwendolyn Brooks

• The Sundays Of Satin-legs Smith
• The Crazy Woman
• Of De Witt Williams On His Way To Lincoln Cemetery
• A Song In The Front Yard
• My Dreams, My Works, Must Wait Till After Hell
• Truth
• Riot
• The Sonnet-ballad
• To Be In Love
• The Ballad Of Rudolph Reed
• The Children Of The Poor
• The Rites For Cousin Vit
• Speech To The Young : Speech To The Progress-toward
• The Sermon On The Warpland
• Jessie Mitchell-s Mother
• To The Diaspora
• Mayor Harold Washington
• One Wants A Teller In A Time Like This
• The Blackstone Rangers
• Primer For Blacks
• When You Have Forgotten Sunday: The Love Story