"Be The Best of Whatever You Are"

Be The Best of Whatever You Are

If you can't be a pine on the top of the hill
Be a scrub in the valley--but be
The best little scrub by the side of the rill;
Be a bush if you can't be a tree.

If you can't be a bush be a bit of the grass,
And some highway some happier make;
If you can't be a muskie then just be a bass--
But the liveliest bass in the lake!

We can't all be captains, we've got to be crew,
There's something for all of us here.
There's big work to do and there's lesser to do,
And the task we must do is the near.

If you can't be a highway then just be a trail,
If you can't be the sun be a star;
It isn't by size that you win or you fail--
Be the best of whatever you are!

~Douglas Malloch (1877 - 1938)

Born in Muskegon, Michigan, Malloch grew up amidst logging camps, sawmills and lumber yards. He became enamored with writing poems and stories about lumbering scenes and eventually became known as the "Lumbermen’s Poet".

He wrote his first poem at the age of ten which was published in the Detroit News. After leaving school he took a job on the editorial staff at the Muskegon Chronicle where he remained for 13 years, becoming a reporter and feature writer for the paper.

After leaving the Chronicle, he joined the staff of American Lumberman in 1903 as a syndicated columnist. Malloch soon developed into a popular and nationally renowned humorist, lecturer and radio personality. His column was often written in the form of a poem and eventually these poems were collaborated into a series of books with “In Forest Land” being his first published work and a national best seller.

Two of his books are available at Amazon: The Woods and Tote-Road And Trail: Ballads Of The Lumberjack.

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