POETRY PARK

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

POETRY PARK

I am not a beat
though I have performed
with them all etc.
I am an electronic
multimedia Shaman,
a Naga Hipster, an Akashic Agent, an Outlaw of the Spirit
I am the One out of 
a Hundred
I am the Bearded Iris, the flower of chivalry
with a sword for a leaf
& a lily for a heart
I am the Rainbow--a hybrid of celestial
hues
blue in the end, a message between Gods.
I am your shadow in the 
darkness,
your reflection in the
mirror
I am the Jack in your box.


~~Ira Cohen

J.L. STANLEY