Thursday, January 19, 2017

Sighing for wings

With every deed you are sowing a seed, though the harvest you may not see.
~Ella Wheeler Wilcox


I know, I already did new year poems, but I'm not done yet. This one spoke to me still:

The Year
by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1910)

What can be said in New Year rhymes,
That’s not been said a thousand times?

The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.

We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.

We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.

We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our brides, we sheet our dead.

We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that’s the burden of the year.

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Today is also a good day to revisit A Blessing for One Who Holds Power and Take Care of This House.

Violet Nesdoly has the Poetry Friday round-up today. Thanks, Violet!

14 comments:

Sally Murphy said...

'We hug the world until it stings'. Yup. And that sigh. Lovely - and thought provoking.

Brenda at FriendlyFairyTales said...

Lovely poem. I love "sigh for wings", which is how I feel today. If only I could fly away...

Irene Latham said...

Thank you for sharing this, Tabatha. Hugging the world until it stings... is there any other way to live? xo

Linda B said...

I'm happy you're continuing on with new year greetings, Tabatha. It's still January! Lovely sentiments for today and continuing on.

Jane @ www.raincitylibrarian.ca said...

What a beautiful poem, bittersweet. Every year brings its own promises of laughter and tears, and all will pass.

Linda Mitchell said...

Wow. I'm glad you kept with this theme. This poem is powerful.
This line gets me: "We wreathe our brides, we sheet our dead. " I love the way you give me food for thought each week. I learn so much from your posts.

Kay said...

I think today--and every day--is perfect for a new year poem. Every day is a fresh start that holds the promise of laughter and tears. of brides and the dead. Thank you for sharing this reminder.

Margaret Simon said...

"An acorn dropped..." May we all drop our acorns in the soil today and be patient for the tree to grow.

Violet N. said...

What treasures these are, Tabatha! I love the half-light, half-serious tone of "The Year" with its word-play. There's a lot of weight in lines like these that sound like she just tossed them off:

"The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know."

Donna Smith said...

...and so it goes...
wonderful poem of life with its new beginnings and old sheddings
Thanks for sharing!

Whispers from the Ridge said...

"We hug the world until it stings"-great line. Thank you for sharing these words, Tabatha. The world needs us now more than ever. There is real hope in the healing.

Ruth said...

Thank you once again for just the right words!

Mary Lee said...

What a trifecta of poems you've offered. What a year this will be...

Michelle Heidenrich Barnes said...

Not that I'm an expert, but this does not feel like a poem from 1910! I'll be ready to celebrate new beginnings any time this year as long as they carry hope.