MOTHER to SON

Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor--
Bare.

But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So, boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps

'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
Don't you fall now--
For I'se still gain' honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

* From The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes, copyright [c] 1994 by The Estate of Langston Hughes. Used by permission of Alfred A.Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.