Saturday, December 31, 2011

Poetry Prompt #84 - Happy New Year


For last year's words belong to last year's language

And next year's words await another voice.

And to make an end is to make a beginning.


                                                                                              – T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"


On this last day of 2011, I send each of you my warm and heartfelt best wishes for good health and happiness throughout 2012.

As we start the New Year with poetry (our first poems of 2012), let’s think about newness and things in our lives that are (or have been) new. One option is to write a poem inspired by the T. S. Eliot quote above or to use this quote as an epigraph. Your poem may be about an ending that  became a new beginning for you. Another suggestion is to write a poem about New Year’s resolutions or old year reflections.

By way of inspiration, I share with you Alfred, Lord Tennnyson’s
 famous lines from “In Memoriam”:

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.

And this haiku in which Kobayashi Issa approaches the New Year with reverence and humility:

New Year's Day –
everything is in blossom! 

I feel about average.

Other New Year’s poems:



May the end of 2011 be the beginning of a new year
filled with abundances of good health, happiness, and poetry!
Happy New Year, my friends! God bless you!


P.S.  Love, licks, and good puppy wishes from Chaucey! 



12 comments:

  1. Thank you, dear Adele, for the prompt and for your lovely New Year's wishes!

    I love your little Yorkie, Chaucer! (And I love what you do with the photo program. Which one do you use?)

    With my sincerest best wishes for a healthy, happy New Year to you and Chaucey,
    Jamie

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  2. Thanks, Jamie! May the New Year bring you good health and much happiness!

    Chaucey is a treasure. I don't dress him up, but, yes, I do use a program called PicNik. It's intuitive and easy. There's an annual cost for advanced features, but very reasonable. http://www.picnik.com/app#/home/welcome

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  3. The new year was happy.
    Naturally, it was the happy new year.
    And did you ever think about a sad new
    year?

    But the cold is cold
    and the wind is icy
    and the raindrops are tears...

    It was just a long sad party


    Buon anno Adele!!!!!

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  4. Thank you so much, Jago!

    Such a stirring image "a long sad party!" I'd love to see this poem in Italian.

    Buon anno to you too! May 2012 bring you abundant good health, much happiness, and wonderful poetry!

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  5. Happy new year! And thanks for all your delightful prompts!

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  6. Thanks, Madeleine! So glad you like the prompts. Happy New Year to you too!

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  7. In italiano allora...

    Il nuovo anno era felice.
    Era normale, era il felice anno nuovo.
    E si è mai visto un nuovo anno
    triste?

    Ma il freddo è freddo,
    il vento è gelato
    e le gocce di pioggia sono lacrime.

    Solo una triste lunga festa.

    Ciao!!

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  8. Grazie mille, Jago! The poem is wonderful in Italian. (I spent a month in Italy some years ago and learned a little of the language -- one of the most beautiful and musical.)

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  9. Happy New Year to you and to Chaucey! Thanks for the great prompts and all the sample poems.

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  10. Thanks, Bob's Mustangs! Hope the New Year brings you good health and much happiness!

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  11. Happy New Year from Ireland! Athbhliain faoi mhaise duit! Bail ó Dhia ort!

    Máire Ó Cathail (Ireland)

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  12. Thank you, Maire! A healthy, happy New Year to you!

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