I heard it was national poetry day today so I've decided to put one of my favourite poems up on the blog. Apparently Nelson Mandela used to recite this to himself when he was imprisoned on Robben Island. If you've ever been there you can imagine just how powerful the mind needs to be to compensate for the sensory deprivation and hardship prisoners were subjected to, often for more than a decade. But powerful the mind is and this tells you how inspirational this poem is!
I wanted to include a photo from my own visit to Robben Island but I'm afraid the 2,000+ photos I took in South Africa are all on discs and safely filed away in storage. So instead here's a pic from Cape Town I really love the sentiment of.
This poem really inspires me to keep persisting whenever I'm struggling to be happy - whether it means powering through lactic acid agony to make it all the way up the hill on a cycle or when life throws a bit of a curve ball at you to deal with. I hope it inspires others to persevere when times get tough.
Invictus
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 Henley
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