“i am running into a new year
and the old years blow back
like a wind
that i catch in my hair
like strong fingers like
all my old promises and
it will be hard to let go
of what i said to myself
about myself
when i was sixteen and
twenty six and thirtysix
even thirtysix but
i am running into a new year
and i beg what i love and
i leave to forgive me”

-Lucille Clifton

♥ K

I’m praying now, to all the mayan gods
but what might be the odds
we all fall and collapse

and never live to see; sweet destiny
i still feel the same
but this time i will change
in a year with another name

now you might recall
the stories of the fallen year
but now do you care?
you have suffered
and survived
i know you did wrong
no matter how happy it made
but in the end you
have it in you head
and every night it debates
I’m shutting down
all these fallacies
that i call my fantasy
and i brush off my head now

I’m holding on
to my resolutions
now here’s the illusion
that I’ll keep them

Only a night from old to new!
Only a night, and so much wrought!
The Old Year’s heart all weary grew,
But said: The New Year rest has brought.”
The Old Year’s hopes its heart laid down,
As in a grave; but trusting, said:
“The blossoms of the New Year’s crown
Bloom from the ashes of the dead.”
The Old Year’s heart was full of greed;
With selfishness it longed and ached,
And cried: “I have not half I need.
My thirst is bitter and unslaked.
But to the New Year’s generous hand
All gifts in plenty shall return;
True love it shall understand;
By all y failures it shall learn.
I have been reckless; it shall be
Quiet and calm and pure of life.
I was a slave; it shall go free,
And find sweet pace where I leave strife.”

Only a night from old to new!
Never a night such changes brought.
The Old Year had its work to do;
No New Year miracles are wrought.

Always a night from old to new!
Night and the healing balm of sleep!
Each morn is New Year’s morn come true,
Morn of a festival to keep.
All nights are sacred nights to make
Confession and resolve and prayer;
All days are sacred days to wake
New gladness in the sunny air.
Only a night from old to new;
Only a sleep from night to morn.
The new is but the old coem true;
Each sunrise sees a new year born.

________________________

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How far can a person go to fulfill the dream’s of someone else?

Read Dream’s Sake to find out. Click on the picture for reviews and free preview of the novel

First of January is not just a day
to remove the old calendar
and throw it away
It’s the beginning of a new chapter
in the book of time.
ready to be filled in
with new songs and rhymes
Let’s hope that the story
that would now unfold
would be happy and joyous,
cheerful, good and bold,
A new beginning awaits us,
a blank new page to fill
with new hopes and aspirations,
a new chance to fulfill
all our dreams, desires and hopes,
and with renewed courage to stand
against our troubles, and bravely cope,

So let’s look ahead
with renewed promises, zest and cheer,
and welcome with open arms and smile
the coming brand new year!

Wishing everyone a super 2012!

First of January is not just a day
to remove the old calendar
and throw it away
It’s the beginning of a new chapter
in the book of time.
ready to be filled in
with new songs and rhymes
Let’s hope that the story
that would now unfold
would be happy and joyous,
cheerful, good and bold,
A new beginning awaits us,
a blank new page to fill
with new hopes and aspirations,
a new chance to fulfill
all our dreams, desires and hopes,
and with renewed courage to stand
against our troubles, and bravely cope,

So let’s look ahead
with renewed promises, zest and cheer,
and welcome with open arms and smile
the coming brand new year!

Wishing everyone a super 2012!

________________________

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How far can a person go to fulfill the dream’s of someone else?

Read Dream’s Sake to find out. Click on the picture for reviews and free preview of the novel

One last post,

Prior to year-end toasts,

I want to write something about 2011.

Nicknamed, “Agent 011″

And now the year gone by;

Want to review it,

I do not know why.

I tire of the usual “top ten” this,

Or “top (pick a number) lists” that many subscribe to.

There I go again,

Wanting to bring a new angle to you!

“Progressive personally” is the description #1;

Then “ridding old demons” follows as number two.

Surprisingly I found myself,

Wanting to get married finally!

Annoyingly I still had pangs of the gravity,

Still pulled by past negativity,

Which I have longed to break free of.

Friends of the new kind helped,

As did one whose ally is “ole”.

Many in a major monetary way,

Factored in my progress to this new day!

Difficult to retain,

We all need those regularly.

Last year was an international secret agent, ‘Man!

Finally freeing me from long-term misery;

My James Bond in the Aston Martin,

Disguised as a Ukrainian beauty one moment;

A Brooklyn attorney the next.

Angels, lights, action and camera from a friend,

Introduced as a “filmmaker” for the first time in public,

I felt the need to shop at the nearest Publix!

Like a prisoner pardoned,

This agent allowed me to rebuild my life,

To where it should have been -

Or much past amends,

For what I would have yen,

Is a much larger leader of men.

Many paper letters penned;

Frustration, disappointment, videos, Bravo!

Almost gone now and my mission is still incomplete.

I went back to worship regularly;

Praying to move forward in-earnest and further,

“Giving-back” more frequently.

Rewarded for living as an adult non-judgmentally,

I stow my past baggage reverently.

Closeted travel bag packed to meet her agonizingly.

A year reaping rewards empirical,

Falling one last time to a true love so natural!

Yet still as I write this,

I need one more act,

The greatest seal-of-the-deal;

Miracle.

Only a night, and so much wrought!

The Old Year’s heart all weary grew,

But said: “The New Year rest has brought.”

The Old Year’s hopes its heart laid down,

As in a grave; but trusting, said:

“The blossoms of the New Year’s crown

Bloom from the ashes of the dead.”

The Old Year’s heart was full of greed;

With selfishness it longed and ached,

And cried: “I have not half I need.

My thirst is bitter and unslaked.

But to the New Year’s generous hand

All gifts in plenty shall return;

True love it shall understand;

By all my failures it shall learn.

I have been reckless; it shall be

Quiet and calm and pure of life.

I was a slave; it shall go free,

And find sweet peace where I leave strife.”

Only a night from old to new!

Never a night such changes brought.

The Old Year had its work to do;

No New Year miracles are wrought.

Always a night from old to new!

Night and the healing balm of sleep!

Each morn is New Year’s morn come true,

Morn of a festival to keep.

All nights are sacred nights to make

Confession and resolve and prayer;

All days are sacred days to wake

New gladness in the sunny air.

Only a night from old to new;

Only a sleep from night to morn.

The new is but the old come true;

Each sunrise sees a new year born.

________________________

*

*

*

*

How far can a person go to fulfill the dream’s of someone else?

Read Dream’s Sake to find out. Click on the picture for reviews and free preview of the novel

The flying cloud, the frosty light;

The year is dying in the night;

Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,

Ring, happy bells, across the snow:

The year is going, let him go;

Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,

For those that here we see no more,

Ring out the feud of rich and poor,

Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,

And ancient forms of party strife;

Ring in the nobler modes of life,

With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care the sin,

The faithless coldness of the times;

Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,

But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,

The civic slander and the spite;

Ring in the love of truth and right,

Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease,

Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;

Ring out the thousand wars of old,

Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,

The larger heart, the kindlier hand;

Ring out the darkenss of the land,

Ring in the Christ that is to be.

________________________

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How far can a person go to fulfill the dream’s of someone else?

Read Dream’s Sake to find out. Click on the picture for reviews and free preview of the novel

With sounds and tastes and
scents to complement rain,
snow and sunshine, grass,
flowers and falling leaves.

The highway between
home and Sound, palm trees,
pride, babysitting and dogs,
airports, books and a dream.

The family- biological and
accidental, chosen and
necessary, met, unmet,
imagined and realized, all here.

Joints and hands, hair,
fingers and skin, eyes
and ears- older, wiser
maybe, complain anyway.

And handful of pills-
all different colors, shapes,
do their thing inside
and life, grateful, continues.

The houses, the faces,
funerals, weddings, hospitals,
parties, debates, lonely quiet,
advance, retreat and sleep.

Love as puppy breath,
too-early mornings with
him and them, us, all of us,
at home- anywhere we are.

~D Gregory Smith

On this new year’s first day
I pause, remind myself
We live in each moment
One breath at a time
Each a miracle, a blessing

Also, I remind myself
We only truly live
When we align
With what’s real inside us
That giving us our heartbeat

The world is filled with lies
The biggest one remains
The illusion of permanence
That anyone or anything lasts
Past its time

Resolutions are fruitless
Leading us astray
Causing us to miss our real lives
Those fleeting milliseconds we exist
Just tiny ripples in the universe’s eternal vastness

Politicians sat forward to cry
As rebellion rumbled
And change took the breeze.

We span into numbers
As rumours moonwalked
And money fires burned,

A scent of despair in the air,
Drawn on smiles
And populist illusions,

We did it and made it,
We were there when it ended,
Then we painted it better.

Poetry.net

That woman laughing
with her mouth full of pizza

sure looks happy,
a green dance, and I’m a

silver coin. Compulsion
was my wedding ring.

It’s a lot of crap: I can’t
imagine your life and I can’t

begin to find these words; I only
tolerate what I can’t

have: I want to feel
every word break.

________________

Kiss me with your round sky:
strong and warm,

our bodies wade in mud
and snow. Above the Public Garden,

the moon, full, in a ring
of fog, lights mud; night, locked

inside, will awaken; night inside roots.
Gold on a fire-colored tree.

Give me the night sky to suck.
With our mouths

we create the night sky.
Through brown leaves

the river lashes its rope of water;
gulls work air, circling . . .

bounced. Restored,
nourished inside you, I am

a surge of heat on a horse’s
back, a salmon

climbing a tight stream.

The grass saves the shape of the hare.
Gray light, thunder, heat, butterfly weed.
What we learned together is real.
Clay, sandstone, reddog, shale.

*

A summer you could not breathe.
Old wind, tangled up.

You lay awake at four in the morning–
having cheated on Matthew. What did I believe

at the same moment? Keepsakes: tell me
stories–you ate laxatives to starve,

used a screwdriver
to break into your house,

looked both ways before thinking.
On family land near Hoschton, Georgia:

in the middle of a cow pasture,
oaks and pines, seven

overturned gravestones. A woodpecker
hammers somewhere. Broken columns,

a marble flower,
an arch on its side, an urn.

More: tell me stories, let your voice
stretch me in shapes of lakes.

*

Wind slides between
buildings’ concrete and glass.

Kids gather for ballet
class or hockey practice.

In the faded storm light,
running in snow

on a school ground toward
a chain link fence,

skating, stick handling a puck
on a small rink

in the center of a boulevard
lined with elms.

________________

Each step jiggles green hedges.
Violet, blue wind covers
river light, birches.

Slick mossed roots cup a rain
pool; nurturing, your throat holds
cadences, unhampers song.

Spend an afternoon’s silver,
drying rain, wood
stacked in radiant sunlight;

ground catches. Air
lightens; unmoving, cigarette butts,
leaf shreds, float.

Sun opens an hour,
sandstone, a blue rag.
You come home and laugh,

buoyant as two hawks,
sun-warmed, ordinary; a nourished
clarity sings. A slow,

reliable embrace, mud-slick, salty.

by Joseph Lease

published in http://www.cultureport.com/newhp/lingo/authors/lease.html lingo 6

Books in print by Joseph Lease

So much has changed;
so much the same
Resolutions
made in vain

Perhaps this year
I’ll make a change
Lose some weight
instead of gain

But losing weight
is such a chore
It’s likely next year
I’ll weigh more

So I’ll just save
myself the shame
Of failing at this
changing game

And wait to see,
if anything,
Just what change
the New Year brings

Copyright 2009 Bethanny M. Parker.  Reprint rights to this poem are available for $5.  Click here for details.

the air tonight is deep thick
the sounds outside more echoing
it makes it cooler the dampness
we get more sticky
our skin connected, touching

In Lima Peru it is foggy like this
almost every day and night of the year.
It never rains.
In summer in January they
may get a few days when
it burns off sooner.
The rest of the year this fog
their only moisture.
You don’t have to worry
about it raining on your parade
your picnic your construction site–
roofs all over town unfinished
buildings open to sky to potential
to move floors ceilings guests.
Why bother with a roof when a
ceiling is enough to keep out
bird droppings and air pollution?

Happy New Year, everyone! Who needs a roof over your head? Don’t block your chakras energy from connecting with the sky! Step out of the fog, keep your mind open to the stars–our ancestors– and the unexpected potential of the New Year!

I was in Lima Peru for my 39th birthday, a day which is rolling around again in two weeks. My secret wish is to have 50,000 page views on my blog and 50 subscribers (and no, I am NOT turning 50–it’s just a nice round number!) So if it’s crossed your mind, subscribe! Do it as a birthday gift to me! And send people to check out the site and subscribe also! You never know what will show up on this blog, and you don’t want to miss anything in 2009 do you?

Ride the Poetry Train! Check out what’s happening at Read Write Poem! Experience the world at 3:15 am via other 3:15 Experiment poems!

And have a great time this weekend ringing in the New Year with whatever rituals you enjoy and appreciate!

    —from “In Memoriam” by Lord Alfred Tennyson