Near the New Year...

I’d like to think I learned a thing

Or two when this year soundless falls

Into the urn of no return

I’d like to think its battered walls

Were not scribbled and scarred for naught

I’d like to think anew old thoughts

That one year prior I begot

Where now the heart and head recalls

The pitfalls and pinnacles oh,

That shaped this cape that draped the air

With mystery, 

now history

I’d like to breathe 

a little prayer

Of holy, 

humble gratitude

For mercy’s gift; 

a year renewed

Upon the shore of yore subdued

...I’d like to touch this moment where

We pause upon the brink of what?

We cannot know, but simply trust

The love of God that thus far brought

Us here remains faithful and just

As step by step and day by day

We live-laugh-love-work-hope and pray

Knowing that in each come-what-may

The God of old abides with us

© Janet Martin