SelwynDuke.com

My Favorite Poem

The following is my favorite poem, "If," by Rudyard Kipling.   The author wrote it for his 12-year-old son, and it's a must-read for all children, from 7 to 107.   It's a great piece of work that expresses some timeless virtues.  It's also taught all too infrequently nowadays.  Enjoy.

                                          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;

The Plastic Lady

By Selwyn Duke

The pundits were writing Plastic Lady's epitaph,
Pointing to lines going down on a graph.
She had a bad finish out west a little ways;
To socialist utopians, it was the end of days.

The Liberals Who Stole Christmas

Selwyn Duke

Liberals we are and though we eschew its reason,
Capitalize we will on the "Winter Break Season."
It's good for making money and for spoiling offspring,
But mention the Son and from the gallows you'll swing.

The Wanting Soul

By Selwyn Duke

If I had faith just the size of a mustard seed,
Mountains would move at my command,
And my walk with God would be as on concrete,
And not the unsure footing of sand.