Poems for the New Year

The start of the new year for many brings a new sense of hope, a found beginning, and a fresh start. For others, anxiety comes crashing in instead. A sense of panic and questioning takes the place where hope and relief should be. This collection of poems helps ease the idea that the new year needs to be a fresh start. That it needs to be better than the last. That you need improvement. Instead, these poems emphasize the ordinary. The daily victories and sorrows, the necessity of living in the now.

Whatever you may need from the new year, these poems can hopefully resonate.

“I Think it’s Brave” by Lana Rafaelo

i think it’s brave that you get up

in the morning even if your soul is weary

and your bones ache for a rest

***

i think it’s brave that you keep on

living even if you don’t know how to

anymore.

***

i think it’s brave that you push

away the waves rolling in every day

and you decide to fight

***

i know there are days when you

feel like giving up but i think it’s brave

that you never do

***

Maybe this day is just like the rest. It can be if you want it to be.

“The Orange” by Wendy Cope

At lunchtime I bought a huge orange –

The size of it made us all laugh.

I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave –

They got quarters and I had a half.

***

And that orange, it made me so happy,

As ordinary things often do

Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.

This is peace and contentment. It’s new.

***

The rest of the day was quite easy.

I did all the jobs on my list.

And enjoyed them and had some time over.

I love you. I’m glad I exist.

“Breakage” by Mary Oliver

I go down to the edge of the sea.

How everything shines in the morning light!

The cusp of the whelk,

the broken cupboard of the clam,

the opened, blue mussels,

moon snails, pale pink and barnacle scarred—

and nothing at all whole or shut, but tattered, split,

dropped by the gulls onto the gray rocks and all the moisture gone.

It's like a schoolhouse

of little words,

thousands of words.

First you figure out what each one means by itself,

the jingle, the periwinkle, the scallop

full of moonlight.

***

Then you begin, slowly, to read the whole story.

“Change” by Betty Phillips

She had a window looking out to sea,

But liking better one that looked away

Across the land to where the village lay,

She closed the shutters. Something was too free

In what she saw, for her unchanging mind.

The cliffs, and breakers, and the shifting sky,

(To one who loved a glowing fire) the cry

Of gulls…

***

But now with this great thunder in her head,

She felt a sudden need of alien sight

And opened the stiff shutters. Then the light

Of the grey sea came in. Something was dead

That loved the fire and chose the village view;

To her the sea was wonderful and new,

And grey…

"Flashing" by Lewis Warsh

Love the cracks on the walls

Of your apartment, and the electric light

The current of electricity passed

Through the hand on the switch, love the hand

Like a bolt of lightning on a June night, a thunder shower

Stand under the porch roof and watch the downpour

Walk to the room you sleep in and lie down, take off your shoes

Listen to the radio, play records, read the newspaper

And rub your eyes tired of reading

The small lines of print stored inside your head

Let them out as if you were leaping from a plane: heaven

Lighting up the apartment like a star

“Hope” by Langston Hughes

Sometimes when I’m lonely,

Don’t know why,

Keep thinkin’ I won’t be lonely

By and by.

Happy New Year, or should I say, Happy Day After Today. I'm glad you're here.