Happy New Year's Eve

Year’s End

The stillness of evening
sinks
and settles ‘round me
like a gentle
threadbare cloak,
well used,
well loved.

The year is dying,
I feel it slip
shivering from my bones,
its days distilling
in my heart —
some so sweet
I smile and glow,
some bitter and stinging
like a wind of sleet.

When the dying comes,
when the moment of transition
shakes me,
can I look
to a new dawn?
Can I open
to a new day,
a new way?

Can I bury
an old grudge,
a recent hurt,
a jealousy,
a loss,
a fear
deep in earth’s darkness
and let the magic there
transform a thing of pain
into a thing of joy?

Can I plant a seed of peace,
cherish my effort
and watch an alchemy
of love push through?

May it be.

May the dying of this
well-worn solar year,
this cloak of time
be the birthing
of a shining sprout.
May the hopeful wings
of a new garment
unfurl in a morning
bright with possibility.

~ Rebekah Myers, “Year’s End”
copyright © by Rebekah Myers,
December 30, 2021

Art: Elaine Bayley
@bayley.elaineillustrations