New Year 2014

The northern year is born mid-winter
While all are asleep,
Newts paralysed;
Wood lice immobile
The sap no longer rising,
Branches bare, leaves dropped,
Composting mulch for the summer hedge;
Draughts chill the house
Where viruses thrive, unwelcome visitors
Migrating down the passage,
Multiplying death certificates,
Making undertakers busy,
And life seems to have ended in its beginning
As we rise with the clocks fallen back.

We'd prefer the southern sun
Streaming through early morning cracks
As the cocks crow, waking a village
With hens ready for reproduction;
Grasshoppers swarming
Across the sweltering savannah;
Cold water showers bracing circulation,
Speeding up day one
And a year full of promise
That life will be better
And we'll last through eternity,
Until the compass swings north again
And we're back to where we were,
But resolved to live as people of the light.

January 2014

Ephesians 5:8   Live as children of the light