New Year

Two sister poems

The last light of 2025

Happy new year!! These are two poems, both written the same way—four syllables per line. But it’s as if two different people are giving their views on the new year.

The first person seems ‘wiser’, and is considering different aspects of the new year— nostalgia for the past, and distress for leaving that behind, too much anticipation. The second, on the other hand, is dead set on this new start.

(I know I usually give the explanation at the end, but I thought I’d explain it before, so it would make more sense from the start)

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Ending, fading

Years are changing

Say goodbye now

Time goes, sprinting

Something calling

Future, longing

We rush slowly

Never ready

Hoping, stalling

We are wanting

Something sweet but

Not much sugar

Waiting, counting

Down the seconds

Something beckons

Softly, weakly

We crawl quickly

Looking backwards

Stumbling forward

Tripping on past

Going too fast

Never pausing

Crying, loosing

Sight of progress

We forget our

Past and present

Search in notebooks

We remember

Hold on tightly

Don’t let go now

We’re so close to

New beginnings

We don’t want them

We aren’t winning

With sight broken

Keep our past but

Don’t be blinded

Will we find it

We will smother

The new, bigger

Numbers, quicker

Look back again

We aren’t ready

We’ve been steady

We’ve been bloody

We’ll become clean

What does that mean

We can’t stay here

Where we come from

Happy new year

It’s not welcome

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Finished, changing

Years we’re wasting

Old means spoiled

Rotten, decayed

Fresh is coming

We’ve been waiting

Clean slate, clean mind

New year, new time

Resolutions

We will keep them

We know we will

Change for better

Will we miss it

All the moments

Steps we took and

Vows we broke and

Bags we carried

Those are buried

Moving quickly

Leave it behind

Those gold moments

We will keep but

We are ready

To make new ones

New chance, new me

Yes I’m ready

Begin again

Fix our mistakes

Hoping for a

New sensation

We will make it

Looking forward

Hoping, heart full

Words pass my lips

Full of promise

Keep my word and

I’ll be heard and

Winds are changing

Hearts are racing

Cry no more tears

It’s a new year

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Inspiration:

The end of a year (and the beginning of another) comes with a mixture of reflection—thinking over the year you just lived, and imagining how you can improve in the next year.

It was only supposed to be one poem—at the moment, I was only reflecting on 2025, and the first poem came in a whirl of thoughts. There were hints of thinking ahead, to the next year, but that’s because that’s all they were in my head just then—little, tiny tastes of future. Not consuming my head like the past was.

And then it was down on the page (or rather, the phone screen), and I found myself thinking forward. The second poem had to be born, because there are always two sides to a threshold.

I even added a bit of past in that one, too, because the past is always there.

Once I had finished, I realised what it was. And it was really cool. As I said, when the year changes, two aspects come through—the past and the future. They are glued together, two things mixed together into the subject of the new year. But it’s like they were peeled apart to reveal two separate things. And why are there hints of the other poem in each, if they’re supposed to be separate? Because the past leads to the future, I guess, and you can’t help but think about it. At least, I can’t.

Explanation:

Think of that saying about the glass ‘half full’ or glass ‘half empty’. I like to think of these two poems as one thinking along the lines of “It’s the end of a year”, and the other, “It’s the beginning of a year”.

Another difference I noticed between the two poems (you know, besides the complete clashing of opinions and viewpoints) was the slight change in writing style. Sure, both poems have the pattern of four syllables in each line, but there’s something else, too. The first voice seems to use comas more freely. And you’d be surprised how much that can change the tone. That’s one of the reasons I think the first sounds more “poetic”.

And yes, I’m going on and on, but another thing about the first person: you might notice that they seemed trapped, and consult the timing constantly. As if everything is rushing, but all we want to do is go slowly (“crawling quickly”). In the second poem, the person knows just what they want. They have a clear vision, and they think that it’s going fast and it’s perfect that way. But the first does not think we are ready for a new year.

Finally, before I move on to explaining actual words in these poems, I wane to point out the word “we”. It appears constantly in each poem. The first poem never even mentions “I” or ”me”. The second does, but less often than “we”. I’ve thought about it, and I think it’s because they both assume that everyone else agrees with them. They think that their viewpoints are the only viewpoints that people have.

Now for a few tidbits I’d like to give more explanation to:

Something calling/ Future, longing: I’m sure you’re thinking, “Hold on—this is the first poem. Isn’t that the one that doesn’t want the future to come??” I think this line means that the future is calling, and it is giving the person a bit of longing. This is one of the little hints of future I was talking about. 😉

We are wanting/ Something sweet but /Not much sugar: People look forward to a “sweet” year—a good year. But a lot of people make resolutions not to eat sugar, or meat or whatever.

We aren’t winning/ With sight broken/ Keep our past but/ Don’t be blinded: Do I understand these lines? Not really. I think this is a breakthrough of level-head-ed-ness (if that’s a word). The person stops talking about missing the past, and instead has a brief moment of recognition that we can’t be too focused on the past or it will blind us—but then they go right back to being blinded.

Thanks for reading! If you like this, check out more of my poetry posts!