POEM OF THE WEEK - "Just Keep On Scrappin'"

I heard this on a taped radio broadcast of Gospel Dynamite from Feb. 2, 1992. The host for the day was Dr. John Reynolds. I have been unable to ascertain the author of the poem and the closest I have come to even finding it are slightly different versions... so I offer up this one with the hope it might encourage others.

When you're sick and you think, What's the use?
And you're tired, discouraged, afraid;
And you keep asking why they don't let you die
And forget the mistakes that you have made;

When you're chuck full of pain and you're tired of the game,
And you want to get out of it all –
That's the time to begin to stick out your chin
And fight with your back to the wall!

And when you've done all you can to scrap like a man
But you can't keep your head up much more;
And the end of the bout leaves you all down and out,
Bleeding, and reeling and sore;

When you've prayed all along for the sound of the gong
To ring for the fight to stop –
Just keep on your feet and smile at defeat;
That's the real way to come up on top!

When you're tired of hard knocks and you're right on the rocks,
And nobody lends you a hand;
When none of your schemes,
The best of your dreams,
Turn out in the way you'd planned,
And you've lost all your grit and you're ready to quit
For life's just a failure for you,

Why, start in again
And see if all men
don't call you a man through and through
just keep on scrappin'!- Unknown