A New Year Poem

With grateful hearts the past we own;
The future, all to us unknown,
We to Thy guardian care commit,
And peaceful leave before Thy feet.
 
Philip Doddridge 
(1702 - 1751)

New Year’s Day 2023 - Whose Blossoms Shall Be Tender Deeds

  

A New Year’s Wish

May each day bring thee something
Fair to hold in memory—
Some true light to shine
Upon thee in the after days.
May each night bring thee peace,
As when the dove broods o'er
The young she loves; may day
And night the circle of
A rich experience weave
About thy life, and make
It rich with knowledge, but radiant
With Love, whose blossoms shall be
Tender deeds.

—George Wharton James, 1909

My New Year’s Letter to All Visitors

New Year's Day 2021

Another year has roll'd away,
With all its sorrows, joys and fears,
But still the light of hope's glad ray,
Yet beams within our heart, and cheers.

One year, one span of time has pass'd,
So swift to some, to others slow;
But it has gone, and we should cast
Along with it, remorse and woe.

T.F. Young

Lunar (Chinese) New Year - 5 February 2019

We Can Not Hear the Tread of His Feet

The New Year
Marie Zetterberg
1906

The New Year comes in the midnight hour
When the beautiful world is still,
And the moonlight falls in a silver stream
Over meadow and wood and hill.

We can not hear the tread of his feet,
For so silently comes he;
But the ringing bells the good news tell
As they sound over land and sea.

Where'er he steps new joys upspring,
And hopes, that were lost or dim,
Grow sweet and strong in the golden hours,
That he everywhere bears with him.

He brings us snow from the fleecy clouds;
He sends us the springtime showers;
He gladdens our world with the light of love
And fills its lap with flowers.

Some day, as softly as he came,
He will pass through the open door,
And we who sing at his coming now
Will never see him more.

Chinese Lunar New Year 2018

16 February 2018 - Year of the Dog

The Christian's New Year Prayer

The Christian's New Year Prayer
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
1910

Thou Christ of mine, Thy gracious ear low bending
Through these glad New Year days,
To catch the countless prayers to heaven ascending—
For e’en hard hearts do raise
Some secret wish for fame, or gold, or power,
Or freedom from all care—
Dear, patient Christ, who listeneth hour on hour,
Hear now a Christian’s prayer.
Let this young year that, silent, walks beside me,
Be as a means of grace
To lead me up, no matter what betide me,
Nearer the Master’s face.
If it need be that ere I reach the Fountain
Where living waters play,
My feet should bleed from sharp stones on the mountain,
Then cast them in my way.

If my vain soul needs blows and bitter losses
To shape it for Thy crown,
Then bruise it, burn it, burden it with crosses,
With sorrows bear it down.
Do what Thou wilt to mould me to Thy pleasure,
And if I should complain,
Heap full of anguish yet another measure
Until I smile at pain.
Send dangers—deaths! but tell me how to dare them;
Enfold me in Thy care.
Send trials, tears! but give me strength to bear them—
This is a Christian’s prayer.

Loosing Forever, with Half Sigh, Half Gasp

A Psalm for New Year's Eve
by Dinah Maria Craik
1855.

A friend stands at the door;
In either tight-closed hand
Hiding rich gifts, three hundred and three score:
Waiting to strew them daily o'er the land
Even as seed the sower.
Each drops he, treads it in and passes by:
It cannot be made fruitful till it die.

O good New Year, we clasp
This warm shut hand of thine,
Loosing forever, with half sigh, half gasp,
That which from ours falls like dead fingers' twine:
Ay, whether fierce its grasp
Has been, or gentle, having been, we know
That it was blessed: let the Old Year go.

O New Year, teach us faith!
The road of life is hard:
When our feet bleed and scourging winds us scathe,
Point thou to Him whose visage was more marred
Than any man's: who saith
"Make straight paths for your feet" — and to the opprest --
"Come ye to Me, and I will give you rest."

Yet hang some lamp-like hope
Above this unknown way,
Kind year, to give our spirits freer scope
And our hands strength to work while it is day.
But if that way must slope
Tombward, O bring before our fading eyes
The lamp of life, the Hope that never dies.

Comfort our souls with love, — Love of all human kind;
Love special, close — in which like sheltered dove
Each weary heart its own safe nest may find;
And love that turns above
Adoringly; contented to resign
All loves, if need be, for the Love Divine.

Friend, come thou like a friend,
And whether bright thy face,
Or dim with clouds we cannot comprehend,—
We 'll hold out patient hands, each in his place,
And trust thee to the end.
Knowing thou leadest onwards to those spheres
Where there are neither days nor months nor years.

Chinese New Year, 31 January 2014

Year of the Horse

A Poem for the New Year

  Cradled in ice, and swathed in snows,
    And shining like a Christmas rose,
  Wreathed round with white chrysanthemums;
    Heaven in his innocent, brave blue eyes,
    Straight from the primal paradise,
  Behold the infant New Year comes!

  His looks a serious sweetness wear,
    As if upon that unseen way,
  Those baby hands that lightly bear
    Garlands, and festive tokens gay,
    For but a glance,—a touch sufficed,—
  Had met and touched the infant Christ!

  And lingering on the wing, had heard,
    Sweeter than song of any bird,
  Of cherub or of seraphim,
    The notes of that divinest hymn,—
    Glory to God in highest strain,
  And peace on earth, good will to men.

  Oh, diamond days, so royally set
    In winter's stern and rugged breast,
  Like jewels in an amulet,—
    Your light has cheered, and soothed, and blest,
    The want and toil, the sighs and tears,
  And sorrows-of a thousand years!

  The bells ring in the merry morn,
    The poor forget their poverty,
  The saddest face grows bright with glee,
    And smiles for joy that he is born;
    The fair round world shines out with cheer,
  To welcome in the glad New Year.

  Oh ye, whose homes are warm and bright,
    With plenty smiling at the board,
  Remember those whose roofs to-night,
    Nor warmth, nor light, nor food afford,
    Still make those wants, and woes your care,
  And let the poor your bounty share.

  For yet our hills and lakes along
    Echoes the herald angels' song,—
  Peace and good will!—oh look abroad,—
    In every nation, tribe, and clan,
    Behold the brotherhood of man,—
  Behold the Fatherhood of God!

  Peace to our mountains and our hills,—
    Peace to our rivers and our rills;—
  Our young Dominion takes her place
    Among the nations west and east,—
    God send her length of happy days,
  And years of plenty and of peace!

--Kate Seymour Maclean (1868)

Countdown to 2014!

~ Cho-Cho San 'Butterfly' ~
Opera Babes
Rebecca Knight, Soprano
Karen England, Messo-Soprano
The MP3 below expired on 12-28-2013.
Click here to play the current selection.

Opera Babes, duet (2003)
- Un Bel Di (Puccini)

The Old Year and the New

The Old Year and the New
Cotton Noe (1916)

Good-bye, Old Year; our journey has been brief;
I'm sorry now to leave thee dying here,
For thou hast borne my burdens with good cheer,
And never murmured, but assuaged my grief.
When buds of promise never came to leaf;
When broken resolutions, doubt, and fear
Did mock at my defeat, O good Gray Year,
Thy reassuring smile restored belief.

Good-bye—farewell! I trust thy dear young child,
Who greets me at the gateway of the dawn,
Will deal as gently with me and my friends,
And lead our footsteps through the springtime mild,
O'er summer's lawn, down autumn's slopes, and on
To where the path of chill December ends.

New Twelve Jeweled Months in 2012

The New Year
(Unknown Author, 1919)

Snow-wrapped and holly-decked it comes,
To richest and to poorest homes.
Twelve jeweled months all set with days
Of priceless opportunities.
A silver moon, a golden sun,
With diamond stars when day is done;
Over all a sapphire sky
Where pearly clouds go floating by.

On the Last Day

On the last day of the year...

"When the horns wear thin
And the noise, like a garment outworn,
Falls from the night,
The tattered and shivering night,
That thinks she is gay;
When the patient silence comes back,
And retires,
And returns,
Rebuffed by a ribald song,
Wounded by vehement cries,
Fleeing again to the stars--
Ashamed of her sister the night;
Oh, then they steal home,
The blinded, the pitiful ones
With their gew-gaws still in their hands,
Reeling with odorous breath
And thick, coarse words on their tongues.
They get them to bed, somehow,
And sleep the forgiving,
Comes thru the scattering tumult
And closes their eyes.
The stars sink down ashamed
And the dawn awakes,
Like a youth who steals from a brothel,
Dizzy and sick.

-- New Year's Dawn - Broadway
Sara Teasdale (1884 -1933)"


Or would one in sober humility and contrition, really hear and heed the Lord's call to unconditional grace and mercy...

37 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.

38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”

-- John 7:37-38
New American Standard Bible (NASB)

A Hardy New Year

New Year's Eve
Thomas Hardy
1906

"I have finished another year," said God,
"In grey, green, white, and brown;
I have strewn the leaf upon the sod,
Sealed up the worm within the clod,
And let the last sun down."

"And what's the good of it?" I said.
"What reasons made you call
From formless void this earth we tread,
When nine-and-ninety can be read
Why nought should be at all?

"Yea, Sire; why shaped you us, 'who in
This tabernacle groan' -
If ever a joy be found herein,
Such joy no man had wished to win
If he had never known!"

Then he: "My labours--logicless -
You may explain; not I:
Sense-sealed I have wrought, without a guess
That I evolved a Consciousness
To ask for reasons why.

"Strange that ephemeral creatures who
By my own ordering are,
Should see the shortness of my view,
Use ethic tests I never knew,
Or made provision for!"

He sank to raptness as of yore,
And opening New Year's Day
Wove it by rote as theretofore,
And went on working evermore
In his unweeting way.

Wishing You A Psalm 51 New Year

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
(Psalm 51:10 KJV)
In tandem with each winter solstice and Christmas celebration, the winter nights become shorter and the days longer. Yet, our Lord, the Sun of Righteousness, reigns in unconceivable splendor even as I write:

"Bright, like a sun, the Savior sits, And spreads eternal noon; No evenings there, nor gloomy nights, To want the feeble moon." – Isaac Watts

On this side of eternity, His advent made it possible to fill us-His elect-with the promised hope and the light of day. His grace and truth poured over us. Our being is filled with an immeasurable joy; His love uplifts and preserves us far beyond the holiday season and temporal tides.

May the Lord continue to make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you in the New Year.

Déjà vu All Over Again - New Year's Morn

New Year's Dawn - Broadway
Sara Teasdale (1884 -1933)

When the horns wear thin
And the noise, like a garment outworn,
Falls from the night,
The tattered and shivering night,
That thinks she is gay;
When the patient silence comes back,
And retires,
And returns,
Rebuffed by a ribald song,
Wounded by vehement cries,
Fleeing again to the stars--
Ashamed of her sister the night;
Oh, then they steal home,
The blinded, the pitiful ones
With their gew-gaws still in their hands,
Reeling with odorous breath
And thick, coarse words on their tongues.
They get them to bed, somehow,
And sleep the forgiving,
Comes thru the scattering tumult
And closes their eyes.
The stars sink down ashamed
And the dawn awakes,
Like a youth who steals from a brothel,
Dizzy and sick.

Happy New Year, 2007

For a thousand years in Your sight
Are like yesterday when it passes by,
Or as a watch in the night...
So teach us to number our days,
That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.
-- Psalm 90 vv. 4; 12

This MP3 Selection Expired on 01-27-2007:
Phil Coulter, piano - Auld Lang Syne

Another Year is Dawning

Another Year Is Dawning

Words: Frances Havergal, 1874*
Music: Samuel Wesley


Another year is dawning, dear Father, let it be
In working or in waiting, another year with Thee.
Another year of progress, another year of praise,
Another year of proving Thy presence all the days.

Another year of mercies, of faithfulness and grace,
Another year of gladness in the shining of Thy face;
Another year of leaning upon Thy loving breast;
Another year of trusting, of quiet, happy rest.

Another year of service, of witness for Thy love,
Another year of training for holier work above.
Another year is dawning, dear Father, let it be
On earth, or else in Heaven, another year for Thee

* Frances Havergal originally wrote the words to this hymn as a po­em for her New Year’s greet­ing cards.