December 27, 2010

• ElectricPoetry: Poem for the New Year 2011

  

  “Poem For the New Year 2011″
  Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
  December 27, 2010 7:30a.m. pdt

  
  Immersing myself in a poem from 1967
  Instantly placing my psyche in lost moments
  Decades gone are suddenly remembered

  Each verse, every line, every word
  First a trickle, then a torrent
  By the end of high school I’d written almost 200 pieces
  And each still stands, on the page, and in my heart
  as a reflection of the time, and the mind, and the years

  Events happen, memories are forgotten
  Hobbies, travels, sights, sounds, friendships, lovers
  Life happens, and the mirror fades
  The eyes still sparkle
  And even though the words may repeat sometimes
  They still offer meaning in circumstance
  And comfort to an aging mindset

  The poet may be older
  But the words, the same words, stay vibrant
  As young as history, as timeless as time
  In those rare occurrences when they find
  themselves appearing on the page again

  The poetry was timestamped, collected,
  bindered, presented, and passed around
  The words spurred memories, loving instance,
  favored places, intriguing conversations,
  half forgotten quarrels,
  and vividly remembered attractions.

  The years pass, and each is memorialized with it’s own poem
  Poems for the New Year, numbering in the dozens,
  Filed away, more pages in the life, more hope to chase the strife

  Cyberpoems replace the pages,
  The written word is typed at a rapid clip
  Once the poetry was special because it was written
  A tangible effect of a life’s imprint
  For over a decade now, twelve more Poems for the New Year,
  the words appear on a screen, are erased, rearranged,
  posted, edited,
  stanzas flipped and words copy/pasted from rhyming dictionaries
  and online reference sites

  Are the poems any more or less special?
  Are the thoughts any more or less insightful?
  Is the art any more or less true to itself?

  Another year passes, and the Poem for the New Year
  appears
  as if like magic
  The magic of a lifetime of hopes, fears, neglect, and memory
  The mirror becomes clearer
  The eyes still sparkle
  And the words can still trigger emotion
  The right words
  The same words
  My words
  As it was so long ago, and still remains
  as long as the mind thinks
  and the memory survives
  and the heart beats

  This is my reasoned response, as it has been in the past
  to the ever multiplying calendar pages which drop at my feet
  and are almost up to my neck

  More years
  More words
  Maybe less as the years pass,
  but maybe even more important in their scarcity

  ---

  

  Some Previous Poems for the New Year posts on Xanga: Poem for the New Year (Decade) 2010 , New Year’s Poems (from 2009). Poem for the New Year 2008, Late Poem for the New Year 2007. My Life in Words, with 2006 poem.

  • 11:07 am
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