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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ESSENTIAL, by BERTON BRALEY Poet's Biography
First Line: You'll never get anywhere
Last Line: "ambish!"
Subject(s): Perseverance; Survival
First Line: You'll never get anywhere
Last Line: "ambish!"
Subject(s): Perseverance; Survival
You'll never get anywhere,
Never do anything,
Never be any one much;
No honor or fame
Will accrue to your name,
You'll never have wealth in your clutch,
Unless you go striving for,
Doggedly driving for,
Seeking the thing that you wish;
How do some guys
Manage to rise?
Take it from me, it's
Ambish!
Although you have cleverness,
Brains and ability,
Plenty of deftness and skill,
The thing that you need
If you hope to succeed
Is Courage and Power of Will;
Without pertinacity
All your capacity
Leaves you a failure, poor fish!
How do the Great
Get to that state?
I've got the answer—
Ambish!
You'll hear it called restlessness,
Wanton irreverence,
Discontent, lunacy, too,
But it is the force
That alters life's course
And makes the world over anew;
The one irrepressible,
Strange and unguessable
Cosmic, unwavering Wish!
How did we climb
Out of the slime?
You tell 'em, Buddy—
"Ambish!"
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