Invictus

Young Black-billed Magpie (Pica hudsonia) Robert Lake, Kelowna, BC.

As I was taking the shot, my wife called from Watson Lake in the Yukon to let me know she is well and enjoying her epic bucket list camping/kayaking trip with her daughter a thousand miles away. The bird's pose reminded me of her favourite poem,

Invictus by William Ernest Henley....

 

Out of the night that covers me

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

 

In the fell clutch of circumstance,

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

 

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

 

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

 

Done