Poet: Catherine Pulsifer
The year has passed so quickly and
Now year end is drawing near.
Time goes so quickly,
We can't waste our days that is so clear.
Did we achieve our goals,
Did we have resolutions made?
Did we move forward with them,
Or did they fade?
As year-end draws close,
We reflect on the past days.
Did we influence others,
In a positive way?
So as the snow so gently falls,
It is a time for us
To look forward and decide,
What in life is a must?
Before we know it the new year
That approaches, will be over.
Never think next year
Will go any slower.
Poet: Catherine Pulsifer
The days are shorter, the air is cold,
The end of the year is here, or so I'm told.
But fear not, for something new is near,
A fresh beginning, a brand-new year.
Excitement fills the air, anticipation grows,
As we prepare for whatever the future bestows.
So let's embrace the change with cheer and delight,
For the coming year holds promises bright.
Poet: Catherine Pulsifer
As the year draws to its quiet end,
I pause and reflect, my thoughts amend.
The good and bad intertwine, I see,
Lessons both bitter and sweet come to me.
What have I learned through struggle and strife?
To grow, evolve, and embrace life.
Serious reflections dance in my mind,
The year's closure, a lesson enshrined.
Poet: Eugene Field
If you're waking, call me early,
Call me early, mother dear.
That I may be up and well prepared
To welcome the new-born year;
Set the alarm at nine, mother.
And call me at nine, my dear,
For I'm to receive this year, mother,
I'm to receive this year.
Poet: Maria J Dodge
My friends, I stand before you
To ask a question plain, —
Has the year that's passed so quickly
Been a year of loss, or gain?
Have you lost fraternal feeling
For a sister or a brother?
Have you lost the art of healing
The sorrows of another?
Have you lost those precious jewels
Which we call the virtues three,
Which in our hearts we cherish, —
The gems of Faith, Hope, Charity?
Have you no Faith in friendship
Which binds our hearts together,
And makes our lives so sunny,
No matter what the weather?
Have you no Hope for future good,
No hope that times will brighten?
If each should do the best he could.
Some burden you might lighten.
Have you lost Charity, that greatest gift,
God-given to us all.
The charity that bids us help
All creatures great or small?
Again I ask the question.
And I make it very plain, —
Has the year that's passed so quickly
Been a year of loss, or gain?
Have you not gained one little thought
To help you on your way.
E'en though the path be strewn with thorns
What have you, friends, to say?
I think I hear you saying
That the year has not been lost.
Although you've been discouraged.
And sometimes tempest-tost;
You have not lost the feeling
Of fraternal brotherhood,
Nor e'en the art of healing,
And doing others good;
That our jewels have been cherished
Within your inmost heart;
That none of them have perished.
Then choose the better part,
And keep your Faith in all men.
When possible so to do.
And then you'll find that others' faith
Will stronger grow for you.
And Hope, sweet Hope, her light shall shine
Across your lonely way.
And warm within your heart shall glow
Her sweet and cheering ray.
And Charity, that gentle one
Who leads our hearts above.
And makes us all the happier
For cherishing her love.
Will cover over many a sin.
And many a heart shall soften,
So that at last we all may win
The right to heaven; and may we often
Pause, while on through life we hasten,
To think of others and to try
Some other hearts to lighten;
And with each other we shall vie
To make some heavy heart grow light,
And hope shine forth anew,
That others' paths may be more bright.
This work we have to do.
Again I ask you. Has this year
Been a year of loss, or gain;
If we've tried to banish some one's fear,
Or soothe a bed of pain?
God grant that, as the years roll on.
We all shall choose the right;
And all look down with sweet content
From heaven's eternal height!
