To Measure Success

By Bertha A. Kleinman

Out of the failure and out of the fault of you,
Something rebounds to an ultimate good,
Something that savors the tang and the salt of you,
Weathers the sinew and gnarl of the wood.

Out of the residue, out of the flaws of you,
Something is crystalized deep in the dross.
Back of the primitive reason and cause of you,
Nothing was ever created for loss.

Out of your past there emerges tomorrow,
Bigger and fuller for tempest and stress,
Out of your failure and out of your sorrow,
Something is needed to measure success!

(1927)

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