This poem is possibly my favourite poem of all and I only found it a couple of years ago when, I will concede, I was at the depths of despair. It is a great poem and has a compelling message about dealing with failure and starting again.

Start where you stand and never mind the past,
The past won’t help you in beginning new,
If you have left it all behind at last
Why, that’s enough, you’re done with it, you’re through;
This is another chapter in the book,
This is another race that you have planned,
Don’t give the vanished days a backward look,
Start where you stand.

The world won’t care about your old defeats
If you can start anew and win success;
The future is your time, and time is fleet
And there is much of work and strain and stress;
Forget the buried woes and dead despairs,
Here is a brand-new trial right at hand,
The future is for him who does and dares,
Start where you stand.

Old failures will not halt, old triumphs aid,
Today’s the thing, tomorrow soon will be;
Get in the fight and face it unafraid,
And leave the past to ancient history,
What has been, has been; yesterday is dead
And by it you are neither blessed nor banned;
Take courage, man, be brave and drive ahead,
Start where you stand.’

I have been blessed with a love of poetry and from time to time return to some favourite tomes of poetry to inspire me and direct my mind to what is important. It is not that the poetry is particularly poignant it is that the words provide trigger points in my brain that push key message forward in my brain. Invictus by William Ernest Henley is one such poem and a transpose it below. Enjoy!

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

I love this poem and it would be rarely a week that goes by that I do not read it and reflect on the importance to be the master of my fate and the captain of my soul. I hope you get as much out of the poem as I do!