Tweetspeak Poetry

  • Home
  • FREE prompts
  • Earth Song
  • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • Teaching Tools
  • Books, Etc.
  • Patron Love

New Years Poems: New Year’s Observation from the Bench

By Will Willingham 7 Comments

New Year’s Observation
from the Bench

A spring and summer,
a fall, has come and gone

and still it hangs
tangled in the branches—

a white grocery sack
torn          into pieces,

making it both simpler
and more difficult
to bring down.

—Will Willingham

Photo by Jenny Downing,  Creative Commons license via Flickr.

Browse poets and poems
Browse Christmas poems
Browse New Years poems

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Will Willingham
Will Willingham
Director of Many Things; Senior Editor, Designer and Illustrator at Tweetspeak Poetry
I used to be a claims adjuster, helping people and insurance companies make sense of loss. Now, I train other folks with ladders and tape measures to go and do likewise. Sometimes, when I’m not scaling small buildings or crunching numbers with my bare hands, I read Keats upside down. My first novel is Adjustments.
Will Willingham
Latest posts by Will Willingham (see all)
  • Earth Song Poem Featured on The Slowdown!—Birds in Home Depot - February 7, 2023
  • The Rapping in the Attic—Happy Holidays Fun Video! - December 21, 2022
  • Video: Earth Song: A Nature Poems Experience—Enchanting! - December 6, 2022

Filed Under: Attentiveness Poems, Blog, Courage Poems, New Year's Poems, Poems, poetry, Short Poems

Try Every Day Poems...

About Will Willingham

I used to be a claims adjuster, helping people and insurance companies make sense of loss. Now, I train other folks with ladders and tape measures to go and do likewise. Sometimes, when I’m not scaling small buildings or crunching numbers with my bare hands, I read Keats upside down. My first novel is Adjustments.

Comments

  1. Maureen Doallas says

    January 1, 2014 at 12:26 pm

    A really fine poem!

    I love how your poetry has developed over this past year. Thank you for all you do to make TSP a success. I especially appreciate your wonderful humor and that you let me make poems of your prose.

    Looking forward to continuing the journey.

    Reply
    • Will Willingham says

      January 1, 2014 at 1:59 pm

      Thanks, Maureen. 🙂 It’s been great to learn alongside such fine poets and writers. And I love the poems you make. Here’s to a wonderful 2014. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Laura Brown says

    January 2, 2014 at 12:45 pm

    New Year’s Observation From the Branch

    Cat food and Kleenex from store to home,
    lunch and newspaper from home to work,
    empty containers from work to car—

    I carried those before the wind
    carried me to this tree, speared
    and wreathed with leaves

    that tickled and patted and shielded and scratched
    and fell off and left me naked up here.
    I’m no good for carrying any more

    than air, which brought me here
    and might again take me down
    or sail me higher.

    Reply
    • L. L. Barkat says

      January 2, 2014 at 1:13 pm

      oh, fun, Laura, to switch perspectives! 🙂

      I especially like the end.

      Reply
    • Will Willingham says

      January 2, 2014 at 4:52 pm

      Oh, I love that last part too. 🙂

      Reply
  3. Rosanne Osborne says

    January 3, 2014 at 11:38 am

    http://poetryhawk.blogspot.com/2014/01/resolve.html

    Reply
  4. Marcy Terwilliger says

    January 5, 2014 at 11:36 pm

    It’s words in a heap at my feet today,
    which ones will I pick and choose?
    How will they spill out of my soul,
    does anyone bother to choose?
    For me it’s the most natural thing to do,
    ponder each day writing something to say.
    Real soul words, refined offerings that lead you to pathways that have a panorama
    view or sparkling seas.
    Splashes of color like sunsets or rainbows,
    a kaleidoscope of words so intense it gives you pause.
    Timeless, unmistakable, unforgettable words that utterly leave you saying “Wow.”
    Are my words witty, warm, funny and unique?
    What is it that you think?
    If they were a best seller today,
    what would your thoughts about me say?
    These are the questions a writer reflects on though out the day.
    Pondering their writings, wondering what to say.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

get the sample now

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café. You're a regular? Check out our June Menu

Patron Love

❤️

Welcome a little patron love, when you help keep the world poetic.

The Graphic Novel

"Stunning, heartbreaking, and relevant illustrations"

Callie Feyen, teacher

read a summary of The Yellow Wallpaper

meet The Yellow Wallpaper characters

How to Write Poetry

Your Comments

  • Katie Spivey Brewster on What Happened to the Fireside Poets?
  • Dheepa R. Maturi on “108”: An Ecothriller by Former Poet Laura Dheepa Maturi
  • Dheepa R. Maturi on “108”: An Ecothriller by Former Poet Laura Dheepa Maturi
  • Megan Willome on “I Am the Arrow”: Sarah Ruden Tells Sylvia Plath’s Story

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

The New York Observer

Tumblr Book News

Stay in Touch With Us

Browse by Topic

Learn to Write Form Poems

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

5 FREE POETRY PROMPTS

Get 5 FREE inbox poetry prompts from the popular book How to Write a Poem

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

See all 154 Shakespeare sonnets in our Shakespeare Library!

Explore Work From Black Poets

About Us

  • • A Blessing for Writers
  • • Our Story
  • • Meet Our Team
  • • Literary Citizenship
  • • Poet Laura
  • • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • • T. S. Poetry Press – All Books
  • • Contact Us

Write With Us

  • • 5 FREE Poetry Prompts-Inbox Delivery
  • • 30 Days to Richer Writing Workshop
  • • Poetry Prompts
  • • Submissions
  • • The Write to Poetry

Read With Us

  • • All Our Books
  • • Book Club
  • • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • • Literacy Extras
  • • Poems to Listen By: Audio Series
  • • Poet-a-Day
  • • Poets and Poems
  • • 50 States Projects
  • • Charlotte Perkins Gilman Poems Library
  • • Edgar Allan Poe Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Blake Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Shakespeare Sonnet Library

Celebrate With Us

  • • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • • Poetic Earth Month
  • • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • • Poetry at Work Day
  • • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • • Take Your Poet to School Week
  • • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • • Every Day Poems
  • • Our Shop
  • • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • • Donate
  • • Blog Buttons
  • • By Heart
  • • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2025 Tweetspeak Poetry · FAQ, Disclosure & Privacy Policy