Might, Could, Would – they
Are Contemptible Auxiliaries²
Try Not – Do! or do not – there is No Try³
Great men Leave the path of Tradition and
Obedient Subordination, Trust to Supreme,
Indefinable Powers – and strike out on New,
Trackless courses where experience is no guide⁴
Endeavor is the Eternal Way, Neglect is the way
To Death: they who Spur themselves on Happily
Never Die, but they who Wallow Self-Indulgently
Even though they have Life, are as if Dead already⁵
Listen to the MUSTN’TS and listen to the DON’TS
Listen to the SHOULDN’TS listen to the WON’TS
Listen to the NEVER HAVES then listen close to
Me – Anything can happen, ANYTHING can be⁶
You may Shoot me with your Words, you may
Cut me with your Eyes, you may Kill me with
Your Hatefulness – but still, like Air, I’ll Rise⁷
Step Forth in Splendor – Mortify our Wolves⁸
Joyous we launch on Trackless seas, Fearless
For Unknown Shores on waves of Ecstasy to
Sail – for we’re bound where Mariner hasn’t
Yet Dared go: Risk Ship, Ourselves and All⁹
Lead on where you would have us Go¹⁰
¹ Emily Dickinson, Finite to Fail
² George Eliot, Middlemarch
³ Brackett, Leigh, & Lawrence Kasdan, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
⁴ Hermann Hesse tr. Richard & Clara Winston, Magister Ludi
⁵ Dhammapada Verse 21 tr. unknown
⁶ Shel Silverstein, Listen to the Mustn’ts
⁷ Maya Angelou, Still I Rise
⁸ Gwendolyn Brooks, God Works in a Mysterious Way
⁹ Walt Whitman, Passage to India
¹⁰ Homer tr. Samuel Butler, The Iliad