12 Poems About Regret

1. Might Have Been
   Poet: Grantland Rice
   
   Here's to "The days that might have been";
   Here's to "The life I might have led";
   The fame I might have gathered in--
   The glory ways I might have sped.
   Great "Might Have Been," I drink to you
   Upon a throne where thousands hail--
   And then--there looms another view--
   I also "might have been" in jail.
   
   O "Land of Might Have Been," we turn
   With aching hearts to where you wait;
   Where crimson fires of glory burn,
   And laurel crowns the guarding gate;
   We may not see across your fields
   The sightless skulls that knew their woe--
   The broken spears--the shattered shields--
   That "might have been" as truly so.
   
   "Of all sad words of tongue or pen"--
   So wails the poet in his pain--
   The saddest are, "It might have been,"
   And world-wide runs the dull refrain.
   The saddest? Yes--but in the jar
   This thought brings to me with its curse,
   I sometimes think the gladdest are
   "It might have been a blamed sight worse."




Sad Poems



2. To Wish
   Poet: Catherine Pulsifer
   
   To wish you hadn't done a thing
   Is not a good feeling
   To be filled with remorse about this thing
   Can hold you back from truly living
   
   You can't go back and change the past
   By doing this you're making mistakes last
   Learn what you can and move on
   Today is the breaking of a new dawn.
   
   We all fall down at times
   But regret should not be the chime
   Start again this very day
   Don't let yesterday's regret stay.




A New Day Poem



3. Facing The Future
   Poet: Anna Shipton
   
   Is the road very dreary?
   Patience yet.
   Rest will be sweeter if thou art a-weary,
   And after night cometh the morning cheery;
   Then bide a wee and dinna fret.
   
   The clouds have silver lining,
   Don't forget.
   And though he's hidden, still the sun is shining;
   Courage! instead of tears and vain repining,
   Just bide a wee and dinna fret.
   
   With toil and cares unending
   Art beset?
   Bethink thee how the storms, from heaven descending,
   Snap the stiff oak, but spare the willow bending,
   And bide a wee and dinna fret.
   
   Grief sharper sting doth borrow
   From regret;
   But yesterday is gone, and shall its sorrow
   Unfit us for the present and the morrow?
   Nay; bide a wee and dinna fret.
   
   An over-anxious brooding
   Doth beget
   A host of fears and fantasies deluding;
   Then, brother, lest these torments be intruding,
   Just bide a wee and dinna fret.




Poems About The Future



4. Regret Stalks When...
   Poet: Catherine Pulsifer
   
   Let the truth of truth be said,
   Regret stalks when procrastination is fed.
   Each should rise with vigor and will,
   Determined to perform tasks until fulfilled.
   
   Unwillingness to persevere has doom in its wake,
   Much of life's joy and hope thus we forsake.
   Put off what could done today,
   And hindered good fortune that could come your way.




Poems About Procrastination



5. May We So Live
   by O. Howard Perkins
   
   May we soon learn,
   That if we would make the day happy and worthwhile,
   We must not seek our own pleasure and good,
   But that of our brethren.
   
   May we so live that when
   The night shadows are again upon us,
   There shall be no cause
   For shame or regret.




Poems About Brotherhood



6. The Other Fellow
   Poet: Edgar A. Guest
   
   Whose luck is better far than ours?
   The other fellow's.
   Whose road seems always lined with flowers?
   The other fellow's.
   Who is the man who seems to get
   Most joy in life, with least regret,
   Who always seems to win his bet?
   The other fellow.
   
   Who fills the place we think we'd like?
   The other fellow.
   Whom does good fortune always strike?
   The other fellow.
   Whom do we envy, day by day?
   Who has more time than we to play?
   Who is it, when we mourn, seems gay?
   The other fellow.
   
   Who seems to miss the thorns we find?
   The other fellow.
   Who seems to leave us all behind?
   The other fellow.
   Who never seems to feel the woe,
   The anguish and the pain we know?
   Who gets the best seats at the show?
   The other fellow.
   
   And yet, my friend, who envies you?
   The other fellow.
   Who thinks he gathers only rue?
   The other fellow.
   Who sighs because he thinks that he
   Would infinitely happier he,
   If he could be like you or me?
   The other fellow.




Regret Quotes



7. Mistakes And Regret
   Poet: Catherine Pulsifer
   
   We have the power
   to decide our fate,
   Though choices can be
   difficult to make.
   
   Life is full of lessons
   to learn,
   Some decisions causing
   anguish that burns.
   
   Sometimes we make
   mistakes and regret,
   But with courage forward
   is the best bet.
   
   For our future decisions
   would be wiser,
   When we gained knowledge
   from these regret advisories.




Poems About Mistakes



8. Say I'm Sorry
   Poet: Catherine Pulsifer
   
   Regrets can linger in our hearts,
   We burden them they hold us down,
   Things we did, words that were said,
   Can all cause pain by the pound.
   
   So say I'm sorry, apologize,
   Ask forgiveness to right this wrong,
   Don't carry regret and be content,
   Let those feelings be gone.




Apology Poems



9. Do Not Wait
   Poet: Lumilla Claire Clark
   
   Are there duties left undone?
   Are there laurels to be won?
   While the new year has begun,
   Do not wait.
   
   Is there someone's heart to cheer?
   Have you made life's road less drear?
   You've a chance in this new year.
   Do not wait.
   
   Have you left life's pages wet?
   With the tears of some regret?
   You've a few bright pages yet.
   Do not wait.
   
   Fill them full of lifes that true,
   Scatter smiles when days look blue,
   They'll reflect more light to you.
   Do not wait.
   
   Are your records just as bright
   As you wish they were to-night?
   You can make them nearer right.
   Do not wait.




New Year Poems



10. Don't Wallow In If's
    Poet: Catherine Pulsifer
    
    Do not look back with regret or ponder
    What life might have been like
    Don't waste time sitting and wondering
    Was it possible for success to strike?
    
    Seek your goal and never
    Worry 'bout what might've been,
    Let not the risk of failure
    Detract you within.
    
    Life is too short to regret
    Or wallow in ifs,
    So strive in courage's embrace
    And never shift!
    
    Your dreams may linger
    Far away like an evening mist,
    But take a chance to grant them
    You may find a positive twist.




If Poems



11. The Better Way
    Poet: Samuel Henry Longley
    
    Do you think you missed a step
    In your walk of yesterday?
    Do you think you failed to score
    In the game you had to play?
    
    Did you fail to speak a word
    That would cheer a troubled soul?
    Did you miss the chance to smile
    When 'twould make a bruised heart whole?
    
    Let it make you strive the harder
    In the work the morrow brings
    Just to make your fellows brighter
    With the song your own heart sings.
    
    Let it make your hand more eager
    To uplift the man who falls.
    Let your heart o'erflow with courage
    For the fainting one who calls.
    
    Do not let the former failure
    Check the loving help today,
    Rather let it urge you onward
    To a kinder, gentler way.




Poems About Failure



12. What We Might Have Been
    Poet: Adelaide A. Procter
    
    Have we not all, amid lifers petty strife,
    Some pure ideal of a noble life
    That once seemed possible? Did we not hear
    The flutter of its wings and feel it near.
    And just within our reach? It was. And yet
    We lost it in this daily jar and fret.
    But still our place is kept and it will wait,
    Ready for us to fill it, soon or late.
    No star is ever lost we once have seen:
    We always may be what we might have been.