.
December 31
__Another year
_Gasps out its dying breaths.
__Oh, do not spare
_Any further Death’s
___Swift hand
_From seizing its demand!
__Do not rue
__An end now due.
Another year begins anew.
__The heavy sum
_Of myriad events
__Weighs burdensome
_Beyond all tolerance,
___Sapped, drained,
_And cannot be sustained.
__Let them be
__Mere history.
The future shall be burden-free.
__Let what has been
_Be done, for good or ill.
__Since it rang in,
_The year gave us our fill
___Of woes
_And joys. Now let it close.
__Fix your eyes
__Ahead. What lies
Behind cannot be otherwise.
.
.
Aurora Borealis
—May and October 2024
Why do you stray so far
From your realm where the polar star
Shines over windswept ice,
Venturing southward here,
To climes where you seldom appear,
Lighting their temperate skies
With your ethereal glow,
Bright cascades that shift, ebb, and flow
Rapt in a ghostly dance—
Curtains of crimson light
Fringed emerald, illumining night,
Eerie veil that enchants?
What have you come to tell?
Do the heavens now warn of hell?
Does lit night presage doom?
What impulse makes you dare
To wander here, fixing my stare
Heavenward, where you loom
Haunting in silence? Bright,
Mysterious, beautiful sprite
Streaming across the sky:
How I marvel at you,
Yet marveling wish that I knew
What your light shows and why.
.
.
Adam Sedia (b. 1984) lives in his native Northwest Indiana and practices law as a civil and appellate litigator. He has published four books of poetry and his poems, essays, and fiction have appeared in various literary journals. He is also a composer, and his musical works may be heard on his YouTube channel.
The reason I may stay up until midnight is to make sure the old year is gone. That seems to match the sentiments in your first poem. The “Aurora Borealis” is indeed a spectacle which you incorporate beautifully in your second poem. Your musings add a new dimension to my wonderment.
Thank you! I immensely appreciate learning that a reader has experienced a sense of wonder from one of my writings.
I absolutely love the form you’ve used for “December 31” — the way the long and short verses alternate, and the meter and rhyme scheme in each long verse perfectly mirrors the other long verses, and the same with the short verses. I also love the imagery of “Death’s swift hand … seizing its demand.” and “the heavy sum of myriad events weighs burdensome…”
And I’m enchanted by your description of, and your wonder about, the Aurora Borealis: “windswept ice”; “ghostly dance” — and, why? Marvelous poem!
Thank you! I wrote “December 31” some years ago as it approached and I’m happy to see it leave the impression I had at the time.
“December 31” – a poem packed with wise advice. I love what you’ve done with the rhyme scheme.
A hard-hitting, straight-talking New Year’s Eve poem.
I loved the poetic monologue addressing the Aurora Borealis narrating as it does a couple of historic moments as the polar phenomenon strayed from its realm.
Thanks for the reads, Adam.
“Hard-hitting” and “straight-talking” are compliments indeed, especially in the current climate. Thank you!
I loved the structure of the first poem, and the terse injunctions contained therein, but the last line in the fourth stanza sounds eerily and uncomfortably like that famous line uttered many times by Kamala Harris. Fortunately for all of us, she will not loom large in the new year.
I’ve never seen an auroral display in full glory, only a rather pale, diaphanous jellycomb-like event after having ingested a hallucinogen. Either way, such a sight will never fail to move any person who has any aesthetic sensibilities at all. But you are right! The meaning of the phenomenon goes far beyond any technical electro-physical formulae devised by mathematical physicists, though it would be fun to understand those, too.
I don’t often find myself agreeing so perfectly with CBA, and obviously must curtail too many of these events, but his comments on the first poem are so spot-on. I too loved the structure of it, and think the rhyming pattern really clever and effective. What I didn’t spot, possibly because I am not American, was the fly-in-the-ointment: quoting Kamala Harris in the fourth stanza!!! It didn’t ruin the poem for me, but heck, that was a close call. Wonderful work.
I had to chuckle at your comment. I wrote “December 31” several years ago, before Kamala was even in the Senate. Any resemblance between my remarks and hers is not only coincidental, but intended with the opposite meaning. I don’t view the past here as something to “unburden,” but to accept stoically.
My own view of the aurora here was on the cusp of visibility, with significant light pollution. I still want to go up to Canada (or New Zealand) and see the lights in their full glory. Still, what I saw was impressive enough to inspire a poem.
Thank you for your insight, though. You are always an astute analyst of verse.
Adam, “December 31” is a thoroughly lyrical piece of wisdom. I’m glad to see you characterize it as “stoical” in your above reply to Anderson and Sale, because that is exactly the word I was thinking of to describe its mood. It mentions the joys of the parting year, but makes much less of them than of the burdens. Beautifully done nonetheless!
“Aurora Borealis” is one smoothly flowing descriptive question. And rightly so, considering the prediction of World War II by the 1938 “great light in the sky,” itself foretold in a Church-certified apparition from heaven at Fatima about 20 years earlier. You probably know of this, but I was amazed to see that the secular Wikipedia itself makes a reference to the immense aurora borealis of January 1938 (visible even in Southern California) as “the Fatima storm” anticipating war declared in the following year. And looking around a bit, I see there was another remarkable aurora in September 1941, possibly predicting the entrance of the United States into the war. I will link here to an “awe-striking” prophecy site that makes the most of these ominous phenomena in the recent past. Excellent and thoughtful verse on your part.
https://www.alamongordo.com/the-fatima-storm/
Thank you. I always enjoy reading your comments. “December 31” pretty accurately captures my thoughts when I wrote it. I considered retitling it “Sylvester-Night” after the German name for the saint’s day, but I thought the raw month-day format of a calendar better characterized the terseness of the piece.
I am very aware of the Fatima prophecy and the 1938 aurora — and with nuclear war being actively discussed, I have to say it was in my mind when I conceived the poem. According to Speer, Hitler himself even commented on how the lights would foretell the war he would bring. I did not know about the 1941 aurora, though. Thank you for bringing it to my attention; I will see what I can find on it.
December 31 is an intricately packed poem that delivers a lot more compared to what its slim form makes us perceive. Aurora Borealis does the same but in a more detailed way. Love these poems, Adam. You’ve inspired me to use this newfound form. Thank you so much and a Very Happy New Year!
Thank you, Shamik. The form may be called a “nonce form,” as I made it up as I went along, but I’m glad to see it received so well here. Maybe I’ll try another in the same form. I’d love to see what you come up with.