Fail Better Poem by gershon hepner

“Go on failing, but next time
fail better, ” Beckett wrote. We try
to do the opposite, the crime
for which we are condemned to die,
no, not according to the Book
we’re taught before we ever fail,
whose rules uncannily we cook
before we learn about betrayal,
but according to the rule
of Samuel, greater prophet than
the first one who thought Saul uncool
once he had failed like every man.
Inspired by a quote from Samuel Beckett’s “Worstward H” (1983) : “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”


5/7/09