Imagine a moment you are unable to put into words because the way it makes you feel is so personal that you think no one else could feel that way. It's unique to you. It's indescribable because there are no words that exist to define it and even if there were, the essence of the moment would never be truly captured. This moment taps into your deepest fears and biggest dreams, the ones you hide because you believe you are alone in being afraid, or not worthy of your own imagination. The innate feeling that connects the human race and simultaneously drives us apart.
Even if you are the person that groans when their professor mentions poetry, this is worth the read because it creates that moment. It produces that feeling. The one you can never quite put your finger on.
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 wornout 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!
Someone casually mentioned this poem once in passing and I immediately latched onto these words. Each stanza resolves issues I have faced at some point in life. I've reflected on this poem at drastically different moments. Whether I'm running, studying, or just going through my day, I look upon this poem for inspiration.
The beautiful thing about poetry is that the meaning is dependent on the reader. I believe this poem illustrates more than a mantra for life, it dives into the fundamental fears and hopes of mankind.
