I Choose The Mountain
The low lands call
I am tempted to answer
They are offering me a free dwelling
Without having to conquer
The massive mountain makes its move
Beckoning me to ascend
A much more difficult path
To get up the slippery bend
I cannot choose both
I have a choice to make
I must be wise
This will determine my fate
I choose, I choose the mountain
With all its stress and strain
Because only by climbing
Can I rise above the plane
I choose the mountain
And I will never stop climbing
I choose the mountain
And I shall forever be ascending
I choose the mountain
-----by Howard Simon
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 another chapter in the book,
This is another race that you have planned,
Don't give the vanished days a backwards look,
Start where you stand.
The world won't care about your old defeats
If you can start 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.
Old failures will not hald, old triumphs aid,
To-day's the thing, tomorrow will soon be;
Get in the fight, and face it unafraid,
And leave the past to ancient history.
What has been has been; yesterday is dead
And by it, you are neither blessed or banned;
Take courage, man, be brave and drive ahead,
Start where you stand.