Ghosts Of The Old Year
The snow has ceased its fluttering flight,
The wind sunk to a whisper light,
An ominous stillness fills the night,
A pause — a hush.
At last, a sound that breaks the spell,
Loud, clanging mouthings of a bell,
That through the silence peal and swell,
And roll, and rush.
What does this brazen tongue declare,
That falling on the midnight air
Brings to my heart a sense of care
Akin to fright?
'Tis telling that the year is dead,
The New Year come, the Old Year fled,
Another leaf before me spread
On which to write.
It tells the deeds that were not done,
It tells of races never run,
Of victories that were not won,
Barriers unleaped.
It tells of many a squandered day,
Of slighted gems and treasured clay,
Of precious stores not laid away,
Of fields unreaped.
And so the years go swiftly by,
Each, coming, brings ambitions high,
And each, departing, leaves a sigh
Linked to the past.
Large resolutions, little deeds;
Thus, filled with aims unreached, life speeds
Until the blotted record reads,
'Failure!' at last.
poem by James Weldon Johnson
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Related quotes
Every Face Tells A Story
Look at the man in the corner, hes sitting all alone
His blankets are made out of cardboard,
His pillows are made out of stone
Every face tells a story it never tells a lie
Every face tells a story it never tells a lie
See the man walking on the water, see the light in his eyes
He came into the world with a message to tell,
He came into the world to die
Every face tells a story it never tells a lie
Every face tells a story it never tells a lie
Youre always telling stories, youre always telling me lies
Youre always telling stories, why?
So think of yourself in the water, seeing your days flashing by
Its too late to see what you wanted to be,
Youve spent all your time, you must die
Every face tells a story it never tells a lie
Every face tells a story it never tells a lie
Step down
And make it work out right
Im trying to get to you with my warning
Been there
For nearly half the night
Look its nearly four in the morning
song performed by by Cliff Richard
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Snow Is Falling
Snow is falling: snow is falling.
Geranium flowers reach
for the blizzard’s small white stars
past the window’s edge.
Snow is falling, all is lost,
the whole world’s streaming past:
the flight of steps on the back stairs,
the corner where roads cross.
Snow is falling: snow is falling,
not snowflakes stealing down,
Sky parachutes to earth instead,
in his worn dressing gown.
As if he’s playing hide-and-seek,
across the upper landings,
a mad thing, slowly sneaks,
Sky creeps down from the attic.
It’s all because life won’t wait,
before you know, it’s Christmas here.
And look, in a minute,
suddenly it’s New Year.
Snow is falling, deeper – deeper.
Maybe, with that same stride
in that same tempo,
with that same languor,
Time’s going by?
Year after year, perhaps,
passing, as snow’s falling,
like words in a poem?
Snow’s falling: snow’s falling.
Snow is falling, all is lost –
the whitened passers-by,
leaves’ startled showing,
the corners where roads cross.
poem by Boris Pasternak
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Resolutions
Each New Year's Eve I used to brood
On my misdoings of the past,
And vowed: "This year I'll be so good -
Well, haply better than the last."
My record of reforms I read
To Mum who listened sweetly to it:
"Why plan all this, my son?" she said;
"Just do it."
Of her wise words I've often thought -
Aye, sometimes with a pang of pain,
When resolutions come to naught,
And high resolves are sadly vain;
The human heart from failure bleeds;
Hopes may be wrecked so that we rue them . . .
Don't let us dream of lovely deeds -
Just do them.
And so, my son, uphold your pride.
Believe serenely in your soul.
Just take things in a steady stride,
Until behold! you've gained your goal.
But if, perchance, you frame a plan
Of conduct, let it be a free one:
Don't try to make yourself a man -
Just be one.
poem by Robert William Service
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Happy New Year
Happy New Year
Find a new hobby
Find a new honey
Happy New Year
Quickly a year has come and gone
In blistery winter another year is born
First we celebrate as a nation
Champagne, wind and spectacular fireworks displays
Finally we contemplate on New Year resolutions
Happy New Year
Learn to eat healthy
Yearn to be wealthy
Happy New Year
Fiercely learn to walk before you run
This experience through the year is rather fun
With thirst set these principles in motion
Before you awaken the next day
With red jelly eyes from a hangover situation
Happy New Year
Give up the smart smoking
Forgive more and start joking
Happy New Year
Happy New Year
Obtain a skill, perhaps a university degree
Always remember nothing is ever for free
Happy New Year
In this festive season
Problems are precious gems
And there is an obvious reason
We learn critical lessons from them
Copyright 2010 - Sylvia Chidi
poem by Sylvia Chidi
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New Year resolutions
One year gone,
New year comes.
Old resolutions achieved,
New resolutions planned.
We’re one year older, and
A year wiser.
We’re wiser, older, and
A year gone.
New hope and new vision,
Envision your dream,
Plan your dream,
Dare your dream.
Realize your dream,
Dream your dream,
Vision your dream,
Achieve your dream.
New resolutions here,
Old resolutions gone.
New lives, new you,
New Year, new resolutions.
New Year Arrives,
Happy New You,
Happy New Year,
Happy & Merry Year.
poem by Lawrence Hiung
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A Faithful Witness
To the firstborn of Yahseph,
Of all that is created;
To the secondborn of Yahseph,
Do set set your mind on Mount Zion;
For His name is His glory and,
Of the economic well-being.
Of the year of the rat,
Of the year of the dog,
Of the year of the cow,
Of the year of the bull,
Of the year of the sheep,
Of the year of the dragon,
Of the year of the snake,
Of the year of the pig,
Of the year of the goat,
Of the year of the lizard,
Of the year of the crocodile,
Of the year of the elephant,
Of the year of the scorpion,
Of the year of the turtle,
Of the year of the fish,
Of the year of the earth,
Of the year of the wind,
Of the year of the fire,
Of the year of the water,
And of the year of the bush!
Like the firstborns of slaves.
The hips of romance,
The faithful witness will not lie;
The same day,
The same night,
Of the love shared at where no oxen are;
And the crib was very clean.
poem by Edward Kofi Louis
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Rememberance Day
In the midst of silence we are one,
recalling our past, its misdeeds.
Young lives snatched cruelly,
not cleanly, not kindly.
The silence brings no peace,
it's a haunting bell, clanging.
It sings the same old song
and chimes each year
as we mourn the toll,
the deaths, the atrocities.
Then, as always, we drift off
into our tomorrows,
forgetting, suppressing __
smothering the silence
poem by Ruth Walters
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New Year
WHITE year, white year,
Muffled soft in snow,
A diamond spray whose gems are gone
Before their grace we know,
A crystal-coated spray whose hours
Melt when looked upon,
Hoarfrost stars and hoarfrost flowers,
White year!
Green year, green year,
Sweet with sun and showers,
A windblown spray whose blossoms bright
Are the seven-colored hours,
A dancing spray whose leaves are days,
A spray whose leaves delight
In azure gleam and silver haze,
Green year!
New Year, new year
From rosy leaf to gold,
A shining spray on the Tree of Time
Where myriad sprays unfold,
A spray so fair that God may see
And gather it, bloom and rime,
To deck the doors of Eternity,
New Year!
poem by Katharine Lee Bates
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One Year
What's in a year?
We watch it disappear.
Its days go by.
They seem to fly
into the ethers of the past.
A year too swiftly
does not last.
And yet each day within the year
contains within it
every single minute
where your life is resolute
and filled with purpose.
A year is not just calandar days
to be scratched off one by one.
When you do this it's then you find
you miss out on its fun.
In a year one can learn
to appreciate the time you have
to be among the living,
the time you have for giving.
In a year you learn about power
that allows you to fill each hour
with everything you love.
What's in a year?
All things new that can appear,
things you've never given thought to,
things in life you want to do.
Before the year has gone away
see before you each new day
and as the year meets its end
be one who can say
'This year has been my friend.
It gave me solace, gave me peace
and it gave me the chance to release
Pain.
poem by Edwina Reizer
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Contemplating change
Another year has swiftly flown.
it’s now consigned to history.
A new year beckons still unknown,
presents an opportunity
To benefit from errors made.
Adopt a different attitude
and try this year to make the grade
By doing as we know we should.
Most New Year resolutions fail.
We make them far too easily.
Regard them as a fairy tale.
not to be taken seriously.
The resolutions I don’t make
I can be sure I will not break.
1-Jan-08
poem by Ivor Or Ivor.e Hogg
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Demon voice
he tells me to fight not to walk away
he tells me to scream not to talk rational
he tells me to hate not to forgive
he tells me destroy not to create
he tells me to give in
he tells me to kill
he knows i'm getting weaker
he knows it's almost his time
he knows he will be free
he knows he will have fun
he knows it will be a bloody ride to the end
he knows the end is death and so do i
poem by Paddy Jansen
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4 Year Girl
A four year girl i knew
This thing we had of truth
Somehow our spirits where alike
Much had we weathered for each other
The four year girl i knew
Could turn your eye if she smiled
Oh how i loved that girl
When she liked smiling at me
A four year girl i knew
Showed me who she was
Did it hurt you like it hurt me
The trust laid just as deep as the lies?
The four year girl i knew
How could i have been so naive
How could she have fooled everybody
Without telling one lie
A four year girl i knew
I spent four years falling for
And in four days lost the girl
And walked away with a heart
Screaming with pain (for)
The four year girl i knew
Why cant my heart bare the change
Of four years in four days
poem by David Bodnar
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Spring comes again an attempt at a villanelle
1)
Spring comes again, disbelieve it as we will,
Longest night is past and with it, shortest day,
Turn, turn, then turn again with the year wheel.
2)
Snow quiets the world, keeping deeply still,
Cold holds hard, holds dark, holds very Time at bay,
Spring comes again, disbelieve it as we will.
3)
Winters seem forever, only covering what we feel,
Something deep is waking, as old as Earth, as shy as May,
Turn, turn, then turn again with the year-wheel.
4)
Only change is endless, is timeless, never still,
Whispering wisdom tells us, make change welcome, be unafraid,
Spring comes again, disbelieve it as we will.
5)
Sun's new year's past, and with the Moon's we heal,
In late winter's trembling light, to the darkest days put paid,
Turn, turn, then turn again with the year-wheel.
6)
With snow-drops showing, and daring buds atop a hill,
The lesson's learned again, even winter cannot stay,
Turn, turn, then turn again with the year-wheel,
Spring comes again, disbelieve it as we will.
(written in April,2000)
poem by Gabrielle Ciarann Roniyah Baer
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A Year and A Day
A year and a day
Are all that lay
Between me and
My love
A year and a day
Three months 'til May
The year leaping
Above
A year and a day
You scorn to say
Is destiny
Belov'd
A year and a day
I slight cliché
This puzzle I
Speak of
A year and a day
Do not delay
Migrate to me
My dove
A year and a day
No time astray
Like seconds that
I shove
A year and day
From the same clay
You claim you are
Void of
A year and a day
All night I pray
That you would be
My love
poem by Brandon McConnell
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The Nexus Said
The nexus tells us
Wills us
Breaks us
Apart from you
The stars have swollen
The trees whisper
You have failed
Such ambitions
Such premonitions
Since we were children
You have been all I ever known
We got into our fights
Over whats not right
The nexus tells us
Wills us
Breaks us
Apart from you
The stars have swollen
The trees whisper
You have failed
Such ambitions
Such premonitions
You have brought this upon me
Its your own catastrophe
Its your mess
You fix it
Or maybe not
But either way
You lost
What the nexus said will be
Call it karma
Call it destiny
It doesn't change a tragedy
No will
Its over
Its beyond the hopeless endeavor
Its not even close to being clever
Its a shelter being bulldozed down
Its part of the lost and found
So what will be
Will be
I don't need you
You don't need me.
Its just as the nexus said
poem by Ace Of Black Hearts
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I don't want to be dragging myself on stage, year in year out, until someone else tells me it is time to go. There are certain birthdays that make you revalue your life.
quote by Tina Turner
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Remember--Forget
AND what shall be the song to-night,
If song there needs must be?
If every year that brings us here
Must steal an hour from me?
Say, shall it ring a merry peal,
Or heave a mourning sigh
O'er shadows cast, by years long past,
On moments flitting by?
Nay, take the first unbidden line
The idle hour may send,
No studied grace can mend the face
That smiles as friend on friend;
The balsam oozes from the pine,
The sweetness from the rose,
And so, unsought, a kindly thought
Finds language as it flows.
The years rush by in sounding flight,
I hear their ceaseless wings;
Their songs I hear, some far, some near,
And thus the burden rings
'The morn has fled, the noon has past,
The sun will soon be set,
The twilight fade to midnight shade;
Remember-and Forget!'
Remember all that time has brought--
The starry hope on high,
The strength attained, the courage gained,
The love that cannot die.
Forget the bitter, brooding thought,--
The word too harshly said,
The living blame love hates to name,
The frailties of the dead!
We have been younger, so they say,
But let the seasons roll,
He doth not lack an almanac
Whose youth is in his soul.
The snows may clog life's iron track,
But does the axle tire,
While bearing swift through bank and drift
The engine's heart of fire?
I lift a goblet in my hand;
If good old wine it hold,
An ancient skin to keep it in
Is just the thing, we 're told.
We 're grayer than the dusty flask,--
We 're older than our wine;
Our corks reveal the 'white top' seal,
The stamp of '29.
Ah, Boys! we clustered in the dawn,
To sever in the dark;
A merry crew, with loud halloo,
We climbed our painted bark;
We sailed her through the four years' cruise,
We 'll sail her to the last,
Our dear old flag, though but a rag,
Still flying on her mast.
So gliding on, each winter's gale
Shall pipe us all on deck,
Till, faint and few, the gathering crew
Creep o'er the parting wreck,
Her sails and streamers spread aloft
To fortune's rain or shine,
Till storm or sun shall all be one,
And down goes TWENTY-NINE!
poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes
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Benediction
Read this poem only aloud
read it as slowly and with such solemn dignity
as if it were the whole great human race
declaring itself to be truly great
read it as if it were
as indeed it is
not words but a great sounding bell
and you are that great bell
so large a bell so low its boom
that it is more vibration than a sound
struck in a temple courtyard
by a robed monk so full of love
that he merges into love itself
every time he sounds the bell
and as its sound now travels up
into the clear mountain air
the goatherds and the goats hear in its sound
the meaning of their life
and in the fields the workers raise themselves
and know what blessing is
and in the valley the silence after each stroke
becomes more real
as the echo fades
and the air knows itself
this poem is the sound of the human heart
listening to itself beyond all words
hearing praise and gratitude and love
knowing themselves in stillness for what they are
this poem is what is beyond all words
smiling sorrowing as it seeks for words
as it vibrates out into the silence
the wonder of the unspoken
the magic of all that’s yet unmanifest
the thoughts yet to be thought
hear in this bell the sound that tells to all
that there is enough love
in one single human heart
to nourish the whole world
hear this bell sounding aloud
sound out eternal in your soul
* * *
[work in progress]
poem by Michael Shepherd
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Sonnet - 'Tis Christmas-time Again
'Tis Christmas-time again this year for me;
I wish it brings me joy and much more cheer;
0 Jesus Lord, please bless my family;
The ones I love, both far and near and dear.
This year has had its joys and woes, bygone;
Some days of despair, heart cannot describe;
And some had died while others had been born;
To lucky few, I do still now prescribe!
But anyway, the year had been better,
Than all the previous ones that had passed by;
Lesser to man and more to God, debtor;
I am, but God's my Friend and Guide so nigh.
Perhaps, the New-Year brings more surprises,
Including the skyrocketing prices!
poem by John Celes
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Rivers Of Ice
Dont need the money nothing can buy
All that I feel under the skies
Shadows were falling my heart beat inside
We walk through the fields to the rivers of ice
Days turn to colour and darkness to light
She said I want you I need you I want you in my life
Love in the shadows the blood rushed inside
Carry on little saviour to the end of the line
I get high for ever
Till the river runs dry for every
Ooh for ever
Its been so many years now I still cant forget
Love flew like an eagle in gods wilderness
Shadows were falling oh my heart beat inside
We kissed on the bridge above the river of ice
I get high for ever
The river runs dry for ever
I get high for ever
The river runs dry for ever
Ooh she tells me
Ooh she tells me
Tell the end of the line
Shadows were falling
On rivers of ice
Music : maclachlan lyrics and arrangement by : kerr/burchill reproduced without permission
song performed by by Simple Minds
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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