You’re still here. You have been through rough weather and a world designed to burden you. Yet, you hold a kind of glory. You know that you’re beautiful, when you still laugh and you still love. You are happy when you realize that you are so mighty, that you exist in a place that is sometimes impossible. You are sometimes the impossible. So here is to your perseverance.
“Still Here”
by Langston Hughes
I been scarred and battered.
My hopes the wind done scattered.
Snow has friz me,
Sun has baked me,
Looks like between ’em they done
Tried to make me
Stop laughin’, stop lovin’, stop livin’–
But I don’t care!
I’m still here!
Your hopes scattered in the wind; the sun burning your skin; the snow freezing you over– The world really has it out for you!
Langston Hughes’ message is a subtle implication. The world is TRYING to stop him from laughing, loving and living. The implication there is that it isn’t succeeding. And that, is why the speaker gloats at the end, “I don’t care! I’m still here!”
Through hardships big and small, that indifferent attitude is a wisdom we all become familiar with. Perseverance is certainly no stranger to Langston Hughes or his works. Check out his poem “As I Grew Older” for another great poem on overcoming adversity.