Start Where You Stand

Start where you stand and never mind the past;
    The past won't help you in beginning new;
If you have left it all behind at last
   Why, that's enough, you're done with it, you're through;
This is antoher chapter in the book;
    This is another race that you have planned;
Don't give the vanished days a backward look;
    Start where you stand.

The wourld won't care about your old defeats
    If you can star anew and win success;
The future is your time, and time is fleet
    And there is much of work and strain and stress;
Forget the buried woes and dead despairs;
    Here is a brand-new trial right at hand;
The future is for him who does and dares;
    Start where you stand.

--- from "Poems That Touch the Heart"