I must portray a stoic strength on the outside <br />To hide the immense pain I feel on the inside; <br />If it were not for the same, I may not know <br />The depths of which I needed privity, in order to grow; <br />What came first I wonder, the strength or the pain! ? <br />Was it a test of that which was already there, <br />Or perhaps a quality I had need to gain! ? <br />Either way, I possess not, need to draw compare; <br />This is a reality with which I live most every day, <br />My past has changed my futurity in most every way; <br />It is to this future that I look, with eyes open wide, <br />With a hopeful heart and a tremendous sense of pride- <br />The possibilities are as boundless as the sky, vast- <br />My future is made brilliant, through the lesson of my past! <br /> <br />-Maurice Harris,29 January 2011<br /><br />Maurice Harris<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-lessons-of-my-past/
