.
Same Old New Year
I bid adieu. You shuffle out.
A new you shimmies in—
A you without the frown and pout,
A happy you of zip and clout,
And once again I’ve little doubt
You’ll make me rich and thin.
You’ll bring me zing. You’ll make me sing.
You’ll zoom me to the moon.
You’ll turn my winter into spring.
You’ll toss me stars on which to swing.
You’ll lift my dreams on nifty wing
Before the month of June.
As midnight chimes, I whoop and cheer.
I toast you with Champagne
To strains of Auld Lang Syne, my dear,
Knowing that when May draws near,
You’ll scowl until your end is here
And you appear again.
.
.
Happy New Year!
As fireworks fizzle out and bagpipes wane,
As curtains close on ghosts of grim things past
I dream my way to daybreak’s beaming plain
Where highest hopes are destined to be cast.
As last year melts with stars and midnight’s kiss,
As half-filled flutes of cheer grow stale and flat
I drift towards the dawn to launch my wish
On wings that skim Apollo’s habitat.
Neath clouds of clementine and lemon fluff
I aim my faith beyond Earth’s fuss and fray.
I pitch my plea to reach just far enough
For seraphim to sing the words I pray.
As brazen cockerels crow and farmers rise
I spy a phoenix cleave through blazing skies.
.
.
Susan Jarvis Bryant has poetry published on Lighten Up Online, Snakeskin, Light, Sparks of Calliope, and Expansive Poetry Online. She also has poetry published in TRINACRIA, Beth Houston’s Extreme Formal Poems anthology, and in Openings (anthologies of poems by Open University Poets in the UK). Susan is the winner of the 2020 International SCP Poetry Competition, and has been nominated for the 2022 Pushcart Prize.
Perfect for New Year’s, Susan! I had to laugh about the coming year making us “rich and thin.” 😉
Your sonnet takes us from “grim things past” to a Phoenix rising in the sky. Very hopeful. Thanks!
Paul, I’m glad I made you laugh… we could all do with a bit more laughter in 2023… genuine, jovial laughter, not handwringing, hysterical laughter at the idiocy we are witnessing. Ever the optimist, I feel sure that phoenix is about to soar! Happy New Year to you!!
We need that phoenix for sure! Good work as always, Susan!
These are just magical, Susan! I think the best things about the first one are the lilting rhyme scheme, and the idea it expresses. The second one really made my eyes pop, especially the lines “I drift towards the dawn to launch my wish / On wings that skim Apollo’s habitat.” and “I pitch my plea to reach just far enough / For seraphim to sing the words I pray.” Just Wow! I’ve risen early on this new year’s eve, to spy a poem cleave the blazing skies!
Cynthia, thank you so very much for your generous comment. I am thrilled you enjoyed my new year offerings. Mike and I wish you and Paul a very Happy New Year… a new year full of creative wonder!
Susan, two absolutely beautiful New Years poems. I smiled all the way through both of them and will continue to smile as I read these over and over again. Thank you and Happy New Year to you and Mike.
Norma, what a lovely comment. I am so pleased to hear I’ve made you smile and would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the joy you have brought to me, Mike, and many others this year with your heartwarming, uplifting, guffaw-inducing poetry – a great antidote to the misery of our times. Wishing you a very happy 2023 from both of us!
Dear Evan, I would like to thank you for your sheer brilliance when it comes to choosing pictures to highlight our poems. This one has stunned me… a phoenix shaped firework?! Only you are blessed with the gift of finding something that random! Thanks again, and a very Happy New Year to you!
Really enjoyed the sing-song ease of ‘Same Old New Year’. The ‘rich and thin’ line is indeed a corker.
As to ‘Happy New Year’, here’s to the ‘phoenix’.
Thank you very much, Paul. Here’s wishing you a phoenix-cleaving, poetry-packed 2023! Happy New Year to you from me and Mike!
Both of these are great, but I especially love the first. I love the ABAAAB rhyming and 868886 meter, and especially how you’ve captured the feeling of New Year’s Eve, especially these days when the new year scowls earlier and earlier. I’m having trouble picking a favorite line, they’re all good enough to be that!
Josh, thank you very much for your generous comment and a very Happy New Year to you! I’m glad the first poem appeals to you. I had great fun writing it… I wanted to create an upbeat, singsong, somewhat humorous tone, and I think my efforts paid off. Sometimes I start a poem and it guides me in a direction I hadn’t expected to go… this one is one of those.
Hi Susan,
I love your poems too. I had just come across ‘The Gate of the Year” by
M. Louise Haskins before reading your poems! It seems apropos as well.
All the best for 2023.
Happy New Year, Kate, and thank you very much for your appreciative comment, which has just sent me off in search of “The Gate of the Year” – wonderful!
Let’s trust for a spell, Susan, that your hope and optimism are justified by what is ahead of us, but whatever the case may be we are enjoined, nay required, to have hope. Let no one say that we abandoned hope in these dark hours.
C.B., I am in wholehearted agreement with you. Hope is required, which brings me to one of my favorite quotes from Albert Einstein:
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.
My aim is to maintain hope, curiosity, and courage throughout 2023 and beyond! Here’s wishing you a hopeful, curious, and courageous new year!
Yes, both are perfect New Year poems and what
a matching graphic from Evan. I have to say it makes me think of the Holy Ghost as does your second poem.
Thank you very much, jd. What a beautiful observation. I hope 2023 brings you joy! That matching graphic is spot on. Evan has a knack I am wholly grateful for.
Same Old New Year is a much more eloquent way of saying what we always used to say in the whitewater rafting industry: “Same shirt, different day.” Thank you and Happy New Year 2023 to you all too!
Yael, I love your whitewater rafting knowing smile of a saying… it’s perfect… as I hope your New Year will be! Ever the party-pooper, I know “perfect” is probably a bit of a stretch… I wish you peace and joy in a chaotic world of mayhem and misery. Something tells me you will manage to find it. 🙂 Happy New Year, my friend!
Susan, the half-filled flutes are going flat as I listen out for farmers rising to brazen cockerels. Thank you once again for making our dreary, wet and cold New Years Eve a lot brighter over here. Best wishes to you and Mike.
Jeff, I am smiling at the thought of your ears tuned to toiling farmers and brazen cockerels as your fizz goes flat… what better way to spend a New Year’s morning. Jeff, I wish you a jolly one!
New Year Greetings, Susan ma’am.
Both poems are par excellence. I especially loved ‘As curtains close on ghosts of grim things past’ and ‘On wings that skim Apollo’s habitat.’
The weekend’s made!
Satyananda, it’s lovely to see you here and I look forward to reading more of your poetry this year! Here’s wishing you a joyous, poetry-packed 2023! Thank you for your lovely comment!
Two great poems to start the New Year. Rich and thin, a wish for all, and perhaps a few years younger. Thank you Susan.
Phil, I can’t believe I forgot the “few years younger” – dang it! I’m just one wrinkle away from poetic perfection. 😉 A very Happy New Year to you and thank you very much for your wonderful words.
Lovely, Susan. Maybe this year Lucy will let Charlie Brown kick that football. We must retain hope! All the best to you and Mike and family.
Thank you very much, Russel. Happy New Year! Ever the optimist, I have a strong feeling Charlie Brown will get lucky on the football front… gas prices will plummet, and piglets will be born with wings. 😉
Susan, sorry to come to the New Year’s party so late! I absolutely adore both of these poems. The Seussical zing of “Same Old New Year” had me smiling at both the imagery and the sing-songiness of a poem that emphasizes repetitions. But there’s nothing tired or stale here — not with all those zooming “z” sounds that fly to the moon and back.
As for “Happy New Year” what’s not to love about “clouds of clementine and lemon fluff!” This poem is full of rich language and imagery and is an absolute joy to read.
Thank you for these and let me belatedly wish you and Mike the happiest of new years!
Brian, a belated Happy New Year! to you too! I hope it’s poetry-packed and peaceful. Thank you so much for your comment… I’m wearing the “Seussical zing” observation (wonderful) as a badge of honor! I’m smiling broadly.