Two Poems to Think About for the New Year

So many thought provoking articles appeared this last week about the new year, new beginnings, dreams to reach for, and things to think about. 

Two poems that captured my attention are shared here for you to turn over in your mind, maybe help you to pick up a pen, type some words, sketch, or sing. 

This first poem is listed as a writing prompt on the Writing Inside VT blog where writers Sarah W. Bartlett and Marybeth Redmond bring ” incarcerated women’s words from the inside-out.” They both volunteer at Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility and facilitate weekly writing circles. 

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

~ John O’Donohue ~

Consider what you are leaving behind in 2012 and what you are bringing forward into 2013.

This poem reminded me of a cocoon breaking open, an unfurling of new untested wings, slow, hesitant, then steady. We may have been on this same route many times before, but this time it’s going to be different. Maybe not a giant step, maybe only a small leap. Whatever the size it’s a link from past to future.

This poem was on my Facebook.

Can you make this promise to yourself? Do you dare? Read it, say it, believe it.