When times are tough, the way not clear or fear comes far too close for comfort, remind yourself with this poem my father left for me so many years ago.

It brings things back to centre, avoids the smallness of things least helpful and reminds us all of who is the boss, who carries the key and who ultimately will walk free.

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

Jonathan L. Trapman, author and photographer, has written since aged 9 and photographed professionally since aged 16. His first novel The Bull got fair marks at school and marked him out as an author in need of improvement. Defying his early detractors he began his professional career as a photojournalist, working for some of the top titles in Fleet Street at the time. Among them the London Times, Daily Express and a very short and boring stint with the Sun newspaper. Having been exposed to the amount of propaganda and half truths demanded from photo/journalists in the ‘70s and 80s, he decided his soul was worth more than shekels earned from the news rooms of corporate cronyism. Marking his further career becoming one of the industry’s foremost photographers he enjoyed getting to know the world, its peoples and a far wider vision of life on earth on others’ behalf and at others’ expense. He has appeared on TV and radio including the BBC, France Inter and online radio. He has been invited to speak at creative and literary conferences across the globe. From early 2012, in partnership with his wife, he has accomplished several translations of foreign writers. The most enduring, endearing and ground breaking has been the first ever, in nearly 1000 years, translation of 10th century Sufi founder and mystic saint Hoja Ahmed Yassawi’s Diwani Hikmet (Divine Wisdom) poetry and sacred verse.(www.diwanihikmet.com) His magnum opus The Freedom Cycle is an ambitious seven book project, Dreams and Realities being the first. Currently working on them to publish over the next few years. Jonathan presently lives in Somerset, UK.

3 thoughts on “When Fear and Darkness surround You – Remember!”

  1. Thank you for this poem. I copied it and will share with those I know who are struggling, myself included.

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  2. Just a note, I found this through jean haines blog, as she posted another article of yours, then I read this. Funny how that works. I have thanked your father for his insight, and ackknowledge his wisdom. I am in the states, stunned by the pain of this world, hungry for peace for all of us. But, this poem lifted me, so I thank you again.

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  3. Mary – Thanks for your comments. I indeed was well served when my father shared this with me many years years ago when in a dark place myself. As much as I do not wish these places on anyone, they ultimately serve on the other side as a blessing in disguise. I always shared with my yoga students over the years that within every cow pat at the center lies the diamond.
    All we need to do is dig in reach and retrieve it. Any dirt can always be washed off yet the diamond is proof of great value in that search and more importantly – experience.

    it makes each of us so much stronger when the mindset changes, accepts the experience and searches for diamonds.
    This world is throwing many cow pats at us however it only means great diamonds are being handed out. The strength gained through each being found helps those still struggling with their search.
    You are surely on your way to great diamond treasures! We all are, if only we knew it!

    Hold that thought and you will never be consumed in the world’s stuff.

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