THIS IS ANOTHER DAY

By Don Marquis

I am mine own priest, and I shrive myself

Of all my wasted yesterdays. Though sin

And sloth and foolishness, and all ill weeds

Of error, evil, and neglect grow rank

And ugly there, I dare forgive myself

That error, sin, and sloth and foolishness.

God knows that yesterday I played the fool;

God knows that yesterday I played the knave;

But shall I therefore cloud this new dawn o’er

With fog of futile sighs and vain regrets?

This is another day! And flushed Hope walks

Adown the sunward slopes with golden shoon.

This is another day; and its young strength

Is laid upon the quivering hills until,

Like Egypt’s Memnon, they grow quick with song.

This is another day, and the bold world

Leaps up and grasps its light, and laughs, as leapt

Prometheus up and wrenched the fire from Zeus.

This is another day—are its eyes blurred

With maudlin grief for any wasted past?

A thousand thousand failures shall not daunt!

Let dust clasp dust; death, death—I am alive!

And out of all the dust and death of mine

Old selves I dare to lift a singing heart

And living faith; my spirit dares drink deep

Of the red mirth mantling in the cup of morn.

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