"Start Where You Stand" by Berton Braley

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.