When you can’t find the words for your feelings, it’s a good time to turn to poets. Traditionally, many people throughout the English speaking words sing Auld Lang Syne by the poet Robert Burns as one year turns to the next. The words are as suitable as ever, but some of you may be reaching for new words to bring up the buried, bitter recollections of this terrible year as you release them to the past and make room for new possibilities.
Say goodbye to disaster. Shake hands
Dorianne Laux, Blossom
with the unknown, what becomes
of us once we’ve been torn apart
and returned to our future, naked
and small, sewn back together
scar by scar.
Dorianne Laux’s poem “Blossom” suggests coming to terms with the pains of the year and carrying our scars as we move on into the unknown. Read the full poem here.
we make midnight a maquette of the year:
Evie Shockley, on new year’s eve
frostlight glinting off snow to solemnize
the vows we offer to ourselves in near
silence: the competition shimmerwise
Evie Shockley penned a meditation called “on new year’s eve” that captures the celebrations –“champagne and chandeliers to attract laughter and cheers”–and the resolutions–“the clean crack of promises breaking.” Read the full poem here as you sit alone and remember the theater of New Year’s parties past.
But suddenly, lifting your eyes
Joseph Brodsky, 1 January 1965
to heaven’s light, you realize:
your life is a sheer gift.
For those looking for a note of hope in the darkness, Joseph Brodsky‘s “1 January 1965” walks us through the melancholy that many feel around the holidays before reminding us that life itself is a gift to be treasured. Read the full poem here.
Over 300,000 Americans have died this year due to the pandemic, and many of us have suffered the pain of distance separating us from loved ones after the death of friends of family. I’m still looking for a perfect poem by Lyn Lifshin, a beloved Literary Legend who passed away in December 2019. I will find one to share for New Year’s Day. But while looking, I came across a great poem by Lyn’s friend, Marge Piercy.
On the birthday of the world
Marge Piercy, The Birthday of the World
I begin to contemplate
what I have done and left
undone, but this year
not so much rebuilding
Marge Piercy’s poem “The Birthday of the World” asks “how much have I dared?” and reminds us that life calls us to act. Read the full poem here.
You have been a hurricane to me
Alicia Ostriker, Years
And a pile of broken sticks
Personally, I find the poem, “Years” by New York State Poet Alicia Ostriker sums up the feelings of saying goodbye to 2020 perfectly. It seems to be about the end of a relationship, and moving on. Don’t we all need to process a divorce from the past year (or, dare I say, the past four years?) right now? Read the full poem here.
Here are a few more lists of poems for the New Year. Share your favorites!
- New Years Poems from Poetry Foundation
- New Year’s Poems from the Academy of American Poets
- Classic Poems of the New Year from the Academy of American Poets
Contact us if you have suggestions of poems by local poets that we should also share.
— Alexis Bhagat reads a lot of poetry. He is the Executive Director of the Friends & Foundation of APL, and is a programmer at St. Rocco’s Reading Series.
