Invictus

This is for all of you who feel beaten down, hurt or misjudged by others or are just plain tired. This was a poem that was a mantra for my Grandmother and now it is mine too. When I feel hurt or misunderstood, which happens a lot, or things that I have confided in people have come back to bite me in the butt (which also happens a lot), I think of this poem. It gives me strength. It helps me to remember that it doesn't matter what other people think. I know the truth. I know the kind of person I am.


Invictus
by William Ernest Henley; 1849-1903

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.