Poetry and Me

Not many people know this, but I've always got a thing for poetry (like I do quotes) for as long as I can recall.  I love reading them. I even used to write my own more than a decade back, but I've never really shared them with anyone. They were mostly abstract and dark - mainly depicting a piece of my life in the darker days as a way of healing my soul.

Unfortunately, (or fortunately),  I lost most of them when my hard-drive crashed on me years and years ago. Since then, I stopped writing poetry altogether;  and even if I could get my hands on the pieces I managed to salvage, I am just too embarrassed to share with anyone.  To be fair, I would probably shudder in rapid spasm if I were to re-read them once again.

Poetry to me, is a private space.While I have completely stopped  nurturing and dabbling in poetry writing, I still appreciate reading them once in a while. I have to say though, poetry at its worst, can sound so lame, but the good ones can be such treasure.

I recently came across this one, posted by a dear friend of mine as her status update. It is entitled Invictus, and I feel compelled to share it. I hope you find it as meaningful as I do. 

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.

 - William Ernest Henly -