AUTHOR'S NOTE:  While actually not my personal favorite poem, this is definitely my most famous.  I wrote it for the "Reflections" contest at school and won second place for it.  However, my mom thought it was the most awesome thing in the world and sent it out in all our Christmas cards that year and my grandma did the same.  All kinds of people from across the country that read it told my grandma that they loved it and wanted to use it for various purposes.  The only two uses that I actually heard about were that somebody in Texas put it in their church bulletin/newsletter and another lady in Iowa or something published it in her town's newspaper.  I received a copy of that and it was a proud moment.
Signs of Courage
By David Jansson
                            Two roads diverged to the left and right,
                          There were signs marking each in plain sight.
                           The sign on the left said, �This path is easy.
                              Follow this road and life will be breezy.�
                              The sign on the right said �COURAGE�

I looked down the left as far I could see:
There was sunlight and grass and many a tree.
The road was wide, with a slight downward slope.
A journey so easy, a moron could cope.
The sign on the right said �COURAGE�
                                        
                                                   I glanced to the right and recoiled in shock;
                                              T�was a steep mountain road, covered in rock.
                                             With danger and storms, and many wild beasts,
                                                         Life would be difficult, to say the least.
                                                        The sign on the right said �COURAGE�

To every journey, an end there must be.
The end of the left was mediocrity.
Fade into nothing, the end isn�t great,
Those who want ease, throw life to fate.
The sign on the right said �COURAGE�

                                                      Back to the right, I craned my neck high,
                                               That mountainous road climbed up to the sky.
                                                            Way at the top shone a glorious light:
                                                            The end was a city of eternal delight.
                                                        The sign on the right said �COURAGE�

                           Though life is hard, reward is worth the fight.
                             That�s why I chose the path heading right.
                              My eyes are on heaven as I toe the line,
                           And whenever I struggle, I remember that sign
                          Because the sign on the right said �COURAGE�
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