A New Year Poem

Step Forward…Slowly

(a poem for the New Year)

Ah, there you are with your

arms wide open

You bid me to step forward

slowly

Your hand raised as a caution

to guide me for

you know my desire

to run

You know me because your

memory has witnessed my haste

Times I should have walked

open eyed

Instead I have hurried to

arrive only to

find myself

weary from the journey

So you are new, again

and you offer fresh hope

if I see instead of

just looking

How much did I miss

in your past offerings

because of my

haste?

You want me to make it

better for all

not just for me and mine

You wait

as I must before I start to

run…again

And what is this you whisper

to me in my waiting?

“Make it truly

the gift of a new year

…this time”

Jody Seymour

2017