Finish Every Day

Today marks Ralph Waldo Emerson's birthday (Though he's long since croaked). Nevertheless, Garrison Keeler recited one of his poems, Finish Every Day, on The Writer's Almanac this morning and I thought I'd share. Everyone always says: "Tomorrow's a new day". I believe Ralph put it best when he wrote the poem below.













Finish Every Day

Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities
no doubt have crept in;
forget them as soon as you can.

Tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely
and with too high a spirit
to be cumbered with
your old nonsense.

This day is all that is
good and fair.
It is too dear,
with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on yesterdays.