THE FIGHTER by S.E. Kiser

The Fighter

I fight a battle every day
Against discouragement and fear;
Some foe stands always in my way,
The path ahead is never clear!
I must forever be on guard
Against the doubts that skulk along;
I get ahead by fighting hard,
But fighting keeps my spirit strong.

I hear the croakings of Despair,
The dark predictions of the weak;
I find myself pursued by Care,
No matter what the end I seek;
My victories are small and few,
It matters not how hard I strive;
Each day the fight begins anew,
But fighting keeps my hopes alive.

My dreams are spoiled by circumstance,
My plans are wrecked by Fate or Luck;
Some hour, perhaps, will bring my chance,
But that great hour has never struck;
My progress has been slow and hard,
I’ve had to climb and crawl and swim,
Fighting for every stubborn yard,
But I have kept in fighting trim.

I have to fight my doubts away,
And be on guard against my fears;
The feeble croaking of Dismay
Has been familiar through the years;
My dearest plans keep going wrong,
Events combine to thwart my will,
But fighting keeps my spirit strong,
And I am undefeated still!

by S. E. Kiser

Samuel Ellsworth Kiser, also known as S. E. Kiser, was born on 2 February 1862 in Shippenville, Pennsylvania, United States of America. He was married to Mildred M. Palmer in Cleveland, Ohio, where he also started his career as a newspaperman. He became a writer, an editor, and a poet. From 1900 to 1914, he was an editorial and special writer for the Chicago “Record-Herald,” the paper in which his regular column “Whimwhams and Sentiment” appeared (‘whimwhams’ meaning ‘oddities’). He made regular written contributions to “Harper’s Magazine” and was the author of the children’s storybook, “The Happy Duck-Lucks” (1911). Much of his writing and poetry was either whimsical or inspirational in nature. He designed and built the world’s first wastebasket basketball hoop. Samuel Ellsworth Kiser passed on at 79 years of age on 30 January 1942 in Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America.