Triumph

If you can sing,
When there is no song in your heart;
If you can keep on being loving, lovable, and lovely,
When those who should be loving you are blind;
If you can hold a lifted brow,
Despite the weights your shoulders cannot beat–
There is benediction there
For you to share.

If you can carry on dry-eyed
While your heart is drowning
In a deluge of tears;
If you can keep on going,
When the pain in you is just too great,
And your soul is shaken with hopeless anguish,
And your suffering, ache-filled body wants to slump;
If you can keep on going–
And keep on going…

When nerves and blood and muscle scream and sob
With the injustice and unholy ways
Of those who should be warm and just, but can’t be,
Because the abysmal holds for them more lure
Than the celestial–
Why, God?

But, if you can tilt your cheeks, sunward,
Keeping your eyes filled with spiritual light and message,
And coax a skip of childlike rhythm
Into your lagging walk–
And lift your best foot forward,
As though you had no care–
There is benediction there
For you to share.

- Virginia Stillman