Sparkly Isla says ‘Happy New Year’!
Well Isla and I have been thinking about new year’s poems and we like this –
December 31st
All my undone actions wander
naked across the calendar,
a band of skinny hunter-gatherers,
blown snow scattered here and there,
stumbling toward a future
folded in the New Year I secure
with a pushpin: January’s picture
a painting from the 17th century,
a still life: Skull and mirror,
spilled coin purse and a flower.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55695/december-31st
I love this poem. With it’s personification of Hoffman’s future actions as a ‘band of skinny hunter-gatherers/ blown snow scattered here and there’ as they stumble towards whatever the new year holds. Genius.
It might seem a bit morbid to talk of death in a new year’s poem! I think it’s more about beginnings and endings.
Still Life with Skull by Phillipe de Campaigne
I also like his reference to the 17th Century art of Vanitas and Momento Mori which are a reminder of our mortality but also here, a reference to the dying year. To me, it’s a reminder that a new year brings an opportunity for change – to review our actions in the knowledge that our time is limited.
He also displays a mirror, a spilled coin purse and a flower. There’ll be other, likely better, interpretations but I imagine the mirror as an invitation to look at ourselves honestly. The flower alongside the skull is literally death and life co-existing as part of the same cycle. It could also be viewed as new life, or hope of a future and well the spilled money? Not sure but maybe a suggestion that it can’t buy immortality or maybe a suggestion not be wasteful, or to share it perhaps! Maybe you’ll know … or maybe all interpretations are valid.
I’m interested to know of more favourite ‘new year’ poems …
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