You have to believe

“You have to believe in happiness,

Or happiness never comes.

I know that a bird chirps none the less

When all that he finds is crumbs.




You have to believe the buds will blow,

Believe in the grass in the days of snow.

Ah, that’s the reason a bird can sing,

On his darkest day he believes in Spring.




You have to believe in happiness—

It isn’t an outward thing.

The Spring never makes the song, I guess,

As much as the song the Spring.




Aye, many a heart could find content

If it saw the joy on the road it went,

The joy ahead when it had to grieve,

For the joy is there—but you have to believe.”




—Douglas Malloch (1877–1938)

Martin Luther King speeche using Douglas Malloch poetry

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 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 you 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 (May 5, 1877 – July 2, 1938)

Was an American poet, short-story writer and Associate Editor of American Lumberman, a trade paper in Chicago. He became known as a "Lumberman's poet" both locally and nationally. He is noted for writing Round River Drive and "Be the Best of Whatever You Are" in addition to many other creations. He was commissioned to write the Michigan State Song.