Episode 31 Bonus: Three poems from Rosemerry about moving into the new year

For Auld Lang Syne         —Rosemerry Wahtola TrommerWe’ll drink a cup of kindness yet,says the song, and I would give youthe cup, friend, would fill itwith whiskey or water or whateverwould best meet your thirst.I fill it with the terrifying beautyof tonight’s bonfire—giant licksof red and swirls of blue that consumewhat is dead and melt the iceand give warmth to what is here.I fill it with moonrise and snow crystaland the silver river song beneath the ice.With the boom of fireworks and with laughterthat persists through tears. WithLilac Wine and Over the Rainbow and Fever.I toast you with all the poems we’ve yet to writeand all the tears we’ve yet to weep,I hold the cup to your lips,this chalice of kindness, we’ll drink it yet,though the days are cold, the nights so long.         —Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer ____The Next Storm ComesAnd suddenly you know: It’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.         —Meister EckhartAnd suddenly you know it’s timeto shovel the drive. For though snowstill falls, at this moment it’s onlythree inches deep and you can still push it easilywith your two wide yellow shovels.Yes, it’s time to start something new—though it doesn’t feel new, thisshoving snow from one place to another.In fact, your shoulders still feelthe efforts of yesterday.But with each push of the shovels,the path on the drive is new again. At leastit’s new for a moment, new until snowfills it in. Then it’s a different kind of new.How many beginnings are like this?They don’t feel like beginnings at all?Or we miss their newness?Or they feel new only for a momentbefore they’ve lost their freshness?There is magic in beginnings, says Meister Eckhart,and sometimes we see beginnings all around us,a new path, a new promise, a new meal.A new prayer. New snow fall. A new song.Is it too grand to call it magic, this new calendar year?Too grand to call it magic, this momentaryclearing on the drive? Too grand to be magic,this momentary clearing in my thoughts?Or is it exactly, perhaps, what magic is—something we allow ourselves to believe,despite logic, despite reason, something that bringsus great pleasure, makes us questionwhat we thought we knew, our senseof what is possible changed.—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer_____Watching The Wizard of Oz on New Year’s Eve, I Think of a Resolution toward PeaceAs for you, my galvanized friend, you want a heart. You don’t know how lucky you are not to have one. Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable.—The Wizard to the Tin Man, The Wizard of Oz, Frank L. BaumGive us hearts that breakwhen we see how cruel the world can beand hands that extend toward others.Give us eyes that weep when we feelthe beauty of home, andlips to speak love, to apologize.Give us courage to say what must be saidand ears to hear what we’d rather not hearand eyes that will not turn the other wayfrom anyone in need.Give us brains that are wiredfor helpfulness, compassionand curiosity. Yes, let us ask for heartsthat break and break and growbigger in the breaking. Let uslove more than we think we can love.And the cup of kindness, may weever remember to drink of it,let us share it with each other.         —Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingform.substack.com/subscribe