New Stars in a New Year

I found this delightful poem in the Christian Science Monitor last week. I wish I'd seen it in early December, but it captures my mood - longing and resolve - yet today. Such gems are never really too late... so, Happy December AND Happy New Year!

December's voice
beats against my window
demands my attention

this insistent voice
shouts and strains
in the winter darkness:

something about wonder
that flutters into my
ice-shuttered world

something about hope
that asks me to perceive
a glow beyond the gloom

something about light
that shines on ravens' wings
and midnight snow

something about joy
that joins me
as I stoke the fire

this old familiar voice
asks me to carve new stars
in a lackluster sky

and bids me listen
for a baby's new-life cry
in my weary heart.

December, you
deceive me:
you are not the
end
of the year. You are the
start.

-- Maril Crabtree
published in the The Christian Science Monitor, December 22, 2008