Captain of My Kin

 (Derived from Invictus by William Ernest Henley)

Out of the night that covers me,

      Black from pole to pole,

I thank God who mighty is 

      I am His conquered soul.

In the clutch of circumstance

      I’ve neither winced nor cried aloud.

Under bludgeonings of chance

      My head is bloody & unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

      Looms the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

      Still finds me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

      How charged the scroll within;

I am the master of my fate,

      The captain of my kin