My favorite poem by Langston Hughes

Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters
And boards torn up ,
And places with no carpet on the flooor-
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a -climbin' on,
And reaching' landin's,
And turni' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
where there aint been no light.
So boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps
'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
Don't you fall now-
For I'se still climbin,'
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.