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So what does this year promise as I sit

In contemplation on the train to Stafford

For a family party and a chance

To catch up with those we seem to know

Only through facebook or the odd

Skype appearance at Christmas or New Year.

Some more long distance walks, the Arun Isles?

Well maybe if the knees and legs hold out;

More likely the odd days across the Downs

With ever longer pub-stops and the excuse

That getting out at all is worth the risk

Of injury to hip or a slipped disc.

But this is incidental when the truth

Is laughing at me even as I plan

My life, as if I had the means to nudge

Events to go the way they ought to be

Rather than accept that everything

Is far beyond my reason or control.

Brian Hick December 2014

©copyright Sally Hick 31.12.25

1336 

New Year 2014

The New Year promises a world where care

            Is offset by daytime TV

            More Dr Who and cookery

To fill the hours and turn us from despair,

While I look back at all my numbered verse

            So carefully catalogued; some printed

            Years ago, some newly minted;

All neatly paged, the good beside the worse,

As if the very act of printing off

            Each numbered poem, page by page,

            Good or ill, bland or sage,

Would validate their purpose well enough,

But will a finder after many years

          Sense their virtue as he reads

           Turning over all the leaves

Impressed by volume, rather than ideas? 

Brian Hick January 2014

©copyright Sally Hick 27.1.25

1235

New Year 2013

The old year ended in a fit of squalls

Lashing rain and wind from off the sea

Keeping us indoors to clear the dregs

Of staling Christmas cake and cold turkey.

But the new-year's sun rose undefiled

To warm the downlands and our winter hearts

As we strode out to Alfriston, across

Firle Beacon, Bostlal Hill and parts

So muddy that we'd rather not recall

Their dank reality, preferring more

The joy of fierce light from out the east

And life returning from cold earth's core.

            No larks above, but our way is clear

            As we set out to face this brand new year.

Brian Hick January 2013

©copyright Sally Hick 3.1.25

 1090

New Year 2012

No snow this year and winter seems to be

A waiting room before the new buds burst

To green and warm our gardens by the sea.

No snow this year.

On New Year's day, we join up for the first

Walk of the season with friends who willingly

Brave the cold, aware we've walked through worse

And knowing four brisk miles will find us ready

For lunch at The Queen's Head, our chapped lips pursed

And keen for wise and wassail; though sad to see

No snow this year.

Brian Hick January 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 10.1.24

 1085

New Year

I have a list of things I need to do

            To fill the time from now till then

            But sense the moment will come, when

I've done them all, and fear what will ensue.

Can I find a new way to perceive

            The long gap between wake and sleep

            Which will not require me to keep

An hourly check on what I might achieve?

Can I just let time slip by;

            Ignore the email and the phone,

            Switch off the TV, be alone

Without constraint or need to question why;

Sit and read, perhaps listen to some Bach;

            Sit and write, for my own pleasure,

            Sit and think, as if this leisure

Were a gift, a chance for a new start.

Brian Hick January 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 7.1.24