Invictus

BY WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY

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.

From the Quirino Grandstand

by Danton R. Remoto

More than two million faces

awash in the early summer sun
The lady in yellow raises
her hands in the defiant sign
fingers roar in the sudden air
Clouds of doves wheel above, Noah's
messengers finally sighting a land
now dried a dictator's blood-flood.
In the park of a freed people,
bermuda grasses weep in sweet pain.
The fountains leap and sing.
A spring of happiness rises like a hymn.
All Because You Kissed Me Goodnight
by Sandy Rolstan

I climbed up the door and opened the stairs,

Said my pajamas and put on my prayers,
Then I turned off the bed and crawled into the light,
All because you kissed me goodnight!

Next morning I woke up and scrambled my shoes,

Picked up my eggs and toasted the news,
I couldn’t tell my left from right,
All because you kissed me goodnight!

That evening at last I felt normal again,

So I picked up my mother and called the phone,
I spoke to the puppy and threw Dad a bone,
Even at midnight the sun was still bright,
All because you kissed me goodnight!

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.