Two Poems for a New Year

Whatever you collected during the past year can be tossed and lost or kept lovingly within your heart. A time for change is granted to us at least once a year if not more often in the coming months.

Photo by Jeff Cauhape

Resolution  

New Year's Sunday morning

finds me in church

the Bishopric banked against the wall

dying embers whose light casts

dimly across the room.

A small boy approaches the podium

carefully unfolds a paper

presses it with damp palms

across the holy books encased there

as I did years ago when I delivered

my first 2-1/2 minute talk.

Every word memorized

my hands sweated into words

written by my teacher.

The boy drones, stiff, scared

the elders sit behind him

passive

their countenances tired.

My thoughts drift to the previous night

snowflakes catch on noses

eyebrows shoulders arms

hands clasp in a circle

a dozen gay men and one woman

singing Hava Nagileh

dancing

in the middle of First Avenue

at the touch of midnight.

The speaker's voice nuzzles

me back to the present.

It's time for a change.

---

Purging

New year

new life

lots of things to throw away

books dusted, sorted,

a decision for each memory

to throw away or keep

a judgment day each year

to remember why I am here

to rid myself of tagalong must-do‘s

that no longer will do

remember a destiny uncovered

from years of neglect

mistrust

disrepect

and distractions

remember what I alone can give

and ignore those voices in my head

that lovingly mislead

or blatantly tread on my path

without my copy of the map

my voice doesn’t rattle around

in their heads

of this I am sure.

Why allow them inside of mine?

New year, new light, new life.

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If you enjoyed these poems, feel free to explore other poems, stories, and essays (and maybe more slideshows) in the Ring Around the Basin Archives.