Chance

 

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Chance

Call life by its proper name
Call it what it be.
Don’t hide behind the niceties
Of respectability.

Sound out the truth,
Tell me what you see.
Are you engulfed in yourself
Wallowing in misery?

Is your life a trial
Where the scales are unjust?
In one sits the unreachable,
And in the other your product of dust?

Is your body nothing,
Did it die first?
Leaving your soul
With an unquenchable thirst?

When you take your last breath
How will you be remembered?
Will it be for the life you lived,
Or for the chance, you surrendered?

 

© 2019, Daniel Kemp All rights reserved

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About Daniel Kemp

At the age of seventy-six, Daniel Kemp has started his second year of studying the science of Psychology at the Open University. He is a member of The Society of Authors and also a bestselling writer. However, in early September 2025, he was diagnosed with cancer. He is now in palliative care at home, being looked after by his ex-wife. When he was writing his novels, he enjoyed writing stories that appealed to those who liked challenging themselves to solve mysteries that were set out before their eyes, but they couldn't. His introduction to the world of espionage and mystery happened at an early age when his father was employed by the War Office in Whitehall, London, at the end of WWII. However, it wasn’t until after his father died that he showed any interest in anything other than himself! On leaving academia he took on many roles in his working life: a London police officer, mini-cab business owner, pub tenant and licensed London taxi driver, but never did he plan to become a writer. Nevertheless, after a road traffic incident left him suffering from PTSD and effectively—out of paid work for four years, he wrote and self-published his first novel —The Desolate Garden. Within three months of publication, that book was under a paid option to become a $30 million film. The option lasted for six years until distribution became an insurmountable problem for the production company. All ten of his novels are now published by Next Chapter Publishing Company which has added an edition titled The Heirs And Descendants Collection, which holds all four books of that series, alongside an edition titled The Lies And Consequences Collection which contains all four volumes of that series. He is the recipient of rave reviews from a prestigious Manhattan publication and described as—the new Graham Green—by a highly placed executive of Waterstones Books, for whom he did a countrywide tour of book signing events. He has also appeared on 'live' television in the UK publicising his first novel. Less
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4 Responses to Chance

  1. I love this poem. I am working very hard to achieve everything I want to and I don’t like giving anything up.

  2. Daniel Kemp's avatar Daniel Kemp says:

    Perseverance is a weapon that can be employed in any chosen walk of life. There are more people out in the creative world who are superbly gifted but have never been discovered than those that have been discovered. Perhaps if they had persevered more then who knows where they might be. If you want to compete then there are only two ways to succeed; luck and hard work.

  3. Daniel Kemp's avatar Daniel Kemp says:

    I think I’m getting to be more self-critical as I get older.

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