Beginnings Poem by robert dickerson

Old Goethe said (somewhere) 'Beginnings are hard'.
Well I say 'endings' are hard, beginnings rarely so-
often and again the dear old prig was wrong
for it's plain to see, if you think about it, really,
that far many more things are begun and never ended
then are ended, never begun. Yes.
First-frenzy cheapens beside Perseverance
Middles are where the sweating's mostly done
while Finales tax the Fancy, vex the soul
in ways no larky introitus ever could;
Death, Indisposition, Natural Disaster
scotch many a project zestily begun:
'Mama' to lisp is not such a test of mettle;
Nor was the first day of German such a grind;
Empires often prove harder to keep than conquer;
Romes' first day was the easiest it ever saw;
many fail the test of Intention and Will
'gainst the coalescent Inertia of Reality