2014 sits quietly behind us now, visible only in the rearview mirror. It was a year of wonder and perplexity, of stunning achievements and tragic losses, of delight and terribleness, and all of this both personal and global, sometimes seeming all at once. As we roll into 2015, perhaps it feels a little like the woman on the gurney, grabbing the door to the delivery room as she’s wheeled in and exclaiming, “Wait. Let’s talk about this.”
The future rolling out before us captivates us with anticipation at the same time as it can unnerve us with its uncertainty. For now, let’s go with the anticipation, revel in the thoughts of good things to come. “We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear, / And that’s the burden of the year.” (Ella Wheeler Wilcox)
Here are five great poems to mark the New Year, and new beginnings.
1. Two Gates
I look through glass and see a young woman
of twenty, washing dishes, and the window
turns into a painting. She is myself thirty years ago.
She holds the same blue bowls and brass teapot
I still own. I see her outline against lamplight;
she knows only her side of the pane. The porch
where I stand is empty. Sunlight fades. I hear
water run in the sink as she lowers her head,
blind to the future. She does not imagine I exist.
I step forward for a better look and she dissolves
into lumber and paint. A gate I passed through
to the next life loses shape. Once more I stand
squared into the present, among maple trees
and scissor-tailed birds, in a garden, almost
a mother to that faint, distant woman.
— Denise Low, author of Ghost Stories of the New West
2. Leaves stick
to my black wool gloves.
Sun shines
on my winter face.
I shake last year’s residue
into the wheel barrow.
—L.L. Barkat, from Love, Etc.
3. The Hard Way
If I were
one foot small
I would use
those bolts like
a climbing wall
inch myself up
grasp the rope
sound the bell
’til one inside
showed up to
bear me through
that door that
was clearly open
the whole time
Click to get FREE 5-Prompt Mini-Series
4. Passage
You spin, and the whole world turns
upside down. Roots become growth
until one someday you have a brass
plate on an inauspiciously solid door.
The tarnished keyhole makes you blue.
You fancy knocking again, like the idea
of being positioned for things to happen.
Just look and see! You are where you are
supposed to be. What is directly in front
of you is nothing, really, but your choice.
Don’t think for a second you have to have
experience. You can tell your story on one
knee, with one eye pressed against glass,
whenever you hear it. Make your vision
wide-angled; imagination becomes the lens.
You only need broad daylight to consider
the questions.
5. The Year
What can be said in New Year rhymes,
That’s not been said a thousand times?
The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.
We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.
We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.
We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our brides, we sheet our dead.
We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that’s the burden of the year.
— Ella Wheeler Wilcox, for more see The Heart of the New Thought
Bonus: A New Year’s Reminder from Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Photo by Kelly Sikkema, Creative Commons license via Flickr.
_________________________
Go deeper: browse our Poets and Poems collection
Want more poems? We’ll send you one, every day.
Buy a year of Every Day Poems, just $5.99
- 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
Monica Sharman says
Well now, I can’t resist sharing my favorite poem here (about a beginning):
A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.
– Emily Dickinson
Maureen Doallas says
That’s one of the first Dickinson poems I read, Monica. Thank you.
L. L. Barkat says
The girls and I spent an evening of hilarity together that began with New Year’s snacks and a reading of Anne Overstreet’s “Resolutions.”
Then we wrote our own “resolutions” and New Year’s poems. Here are two of my favorites:
“The Joker’s Resolutions”
This year I resolve—
to make Batsy crack a smile,
to convince my psychiatrist I’m not vile,
lure five super heroes off their paths,
and make a tank of piranhas laugh.
—Sonia
“Haiku for New Year’s Eve”
The Christmas tree
a bowl of popcorn
they are both organic.
—Sara
And one of the lines from my long resolutions poem:
“plant a garden in the blue Volvo”
Happy New Year, All. It was absolute fun to begin ours with poetry!
Maureen Doallas says
Love these and those above!
SimplyDarlene says
“Wait. Let’s talk about this.” <– That's a big ha-ha in terms of slowing down labor; but look how it aptly applies in this here poetical place where we learn, teach, share, encourage and grow.
Whether we give word-birth in private, or do it with a secret gang of cheerleaders, Maureen's words serve as a terrifical place to start…
"You can tell your story on one
knee, with one eye pressed against glass,
whenever you hear it."
Blessings. (& Happy New Year!)
Maureen Doallas says
Thank you. Happy New Year and blessings.
Laura Brown says
I like all of these, but especially Maureen’s, especially these lines:
“Just look and see! You are where you are
supposed to be. What is directly in front
of you is nothing, really, but your choice.”
A surprise to see my little poem here! Thanks for, once again, making my day.
Resolved: later today I will write my own resolutions poem.
Maureen Doallas says
Thank you, Laura. I recall that this is a “found” poem. I’d forgotten it.
Enjoyed your poem! Happy New Year!
Marcy Terwilliger says
Maureen, there’s such wisdom in your writing which we both know comes from learning, our past, our age. Yet wisdom is a gift from our beloved God, as I read through the entire bible this year for the first time. We ask, He gives. You leave words that make us think and read your words again. Your words are vision.
Then L.L. I loved your little poem, to shake last year’s residue into the wheel barrow. Then let’s take it to the backyard and dump it in the compost pile.
Life is a ride on a trolley. In our life friends get on for a long time then one day you look back and poof, their gone. Then new friends get on, some stay some go. The circle of life.
So I’m going to open up my seams
Serious threads are going to break
My earth is going to move
I’m going to shake-up my space.
Something needs to give
Steel toes on my new boots.
Shine on my truck wheel’s
My baby sits up high.
I’m going to unzip my skin
Girls.
This Lady is going to fly.
Maureen Doallas says
Thank you, Marcy, for such a lovely comment.
Here’s to putting on a new flying suit that will let you soar in 2015! (I enjoyed your poem.)