IF
(Rudyard Kipling)

IF YOU CAN KEEP your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream-and not make dreams your master,
If you can think-and not make thoughts your aiin;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same,
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with womout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so bold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings-nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And-which is more-you'll be a Man, my son!
 

Half Way Down
(A. A. Milne)

Halfway down the stairs
Is a stair
Where I sit.
There isn't any
Other stair
Quite like
It.
I'm not at the bottom,
I'm not at the top;
So this stair is the stair
Where
I always
Stop.

Halfway down the stairs
Isn't up,
And isn't down.
It isn't in the nursery,
It isn't in the town.
And all sorts of funny thoughts
Run round my head;
"It isn't really
Anywhere!
It's somewhere else
Instead!"
 

SOLITUDE
(A.A. Milne)

I have a house where I go
When there's too many people,
I have a house where I go
Where no one can be;
I have a house where I go,
Where nobody ever says "No"
Where no one says anything-- so
There is no one but me.
 

VESPERS
(A.A. Milne)

LITTLE BOY KNEELS AT THE FOOT OF THE BED,
DROOPS ON THE LITTLE HANDS LITTLE GOLD HEAD.
HUSH! HUSH! WHISPER WHO DARES!
CHRISTOPHER ROBIN IS SAYING HIS PRAYERS

GOD BLESS MUMMY. I know that's right/
Wasn't it fun in the bath tonight?
The cold's so cold, and the hot's so hot.
Oh! GOD BLESS DADDY-- I quite forgot.

If I open my fingers a little bit more,
I can see Nanny's dressing-gown on the door.
It's a beautiful blue, but it hasn't a hood
Oh! GOD BLESS NANNY AND MAKE HER GOOD.

Mine has a hood, and I lie in bed,
And pull the hood right over my head,
And I shut my eyes, and I curl up small,
And nobody knows that I'm there at all.

Oh! THANK YOU, GOD, FOR A LOVELY DAY.
And what was the other I had to say?
I said "Bless Daddy," so what can it be?
Oh! Now I remember it. GOD BLESS ME.

LITTLE BOY KNEELS AT THE FOOT OF THE BED,
DROOPS ON THE LITTLE HANDS LITTLE GOLD HEAD.
HUSH! HUSH! WHISPER WHO DARES!
CHRISTOPHER ROBIN IS SAYING HIS PRAYERS
 

Where Is The End Of The World?

What does it mean
That something’s at the END OF THE WORLD?
I’ve never heard of such country
And it’s not in my atlas. I’ve checked.
Is this END OF THE WORLD in a jungle?
Or behind the last ocean?
On the Equator, at the North Pole
Or perhaps on the highest mountain?
Or maybe, Miss Smith, we should not
Look for it on this planet
Because it is out in the space
On the Mars or some bright-tailed comet?
I thought you could tell me this,
You teach us geography...
You see, I must know where it is
Because Annie will have to find it.
Annie's told me that when she's grown up
She will go to the END OF THE WORLD,
So I thought I should get her a map ,
Maps are always handy to have.
 

Flower Girl
(Ken Nesbitt)

Sarah Sears to whoops and cheers
grew petunias from her ears.
Then with grace and savoir faire
sprouted tulips from her hair.

Next she smiled and struck a pose;
orchids blossomed from her nose,
and with unexpected skill,
she produced a dafodil.

Peonies and prarie rockets,
germinated from her pockets.
Poppies bloomed between her toes.
Pansies covered all her clothes.

This went on for hours and hours,
blooming petals, budding flowers,
'til her parents came and got her,
taking home their floral daughter,

where, with tears upon her face,
she threw out her empty vase.
Sarah sniffed and blew her nose,
all she wanted was a rose.
 

Can't Stop Laughing
(Ken Nesbitt) 

It seems that I cannot stop laughing
no matter how hard that I try.
I'm laughing so hard that my sides ache.
I'm laughing so hard I could cry.

It started while reading a poem
I didn't expect would be fun,
and yet it was silly and clever,
with several jokes and a pun.

I tried not to let myself like it.
I held out for more than a while.
But soon my willpower was fading
and I was beginning to smile.

I found myself reading another
amusing and whimsical rhyme;
a poem so zany and comic
they should have declared it a crime!

At first I let out a small giggle,
and then came a tiny guffaw,
a snicker, a chuckle, a titter,
and then a wholehearted HA HA!

By this time I couldn't stop reading,
and though it's completely unfair,
I glanced at a couple more poems
and almost fell out of my chair.

And now I'm afraid I'm addicted;
I'm reading them page after page.
My friends think I'm totally loony
and ought to be locked in a cage.

So listen, my friend, to this warning,
or you might end up in a cage:
Whatever you're thinking of doing,
I'm begging you: DON'T TURN THE PAGE!!
 

I Went to a Big Lunch
(Ken Nesbitt)

I started arranging my alphabet soup,
concocting big words to devour.
I swallowed a B U I L D I N G,
I gobbled a S T R E E T,
and then I ingested a T O W E R.

I snacked on a S U B W A Y,
I bolted a B U S,
I wolfed down a P A S S E N G E R  T R A I N,
I chewed up M O N T A N A,
I gulped I N D I A N A,
then tossed down the whole S T A T E  O F  M A I N E.

I ate the G R A N D  C A N Y O N,
I lunched on the R O C K I E S,
On A S I A, I managed to sup.
I would have been fine,
but I started to dine
on M Y  H O M E W O R K
and then I threw up.
 

I'm Not Afraid of the Dark
(Ken Nesbitt)

Oh, I'm not afraid of the darkness.
I don't mind an absence of light.
I can't say I'm scared of the sunset
or things that go "bump" in the night.

I've never been frightened of monsters
or tentacles under my bed.
Not skeletons, witches or goblins
or creatures come back from the dead.

I'm not at all worried of werewolves,
or even a vampire's bite.
I'm simply not scared of the darkness,
except when you turn off the light.

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