New Year - 2020

A poem by T.T.V.


This time of mine, when I awake
From slumbers deep I overtake 
Another night
And claim the time as mine
In twenty twenty vision see
The day emerge
To resonate with all the earth.
For 'nine o'clock' is only here
Elsewhere around this revolving orb
Is other time and restless place
A myriad different views
Lights, weathers, heats
Plunged in deep, dark sleep
Or setting red in angry glows.
Seven billion hopes or fears
Arrive or leave, struggling to survive
Or like me here lie in lost repose
Hardly alert yet wondering
Expectant what new day and year
May fling my way or interpose.
No longer young, the years have slipped away
With  this 'Elizabethan Age' in sad decay
Yet every passing, offers something new.
As if to make the point the sun breaks through
A cyclone high the year renews
Bare creamy branches wave against the grey.

I write my lines and sip my tea
Wondering what new day and year may bring
Leaving all those characters in dreams
To face them in reality.
The fountains of the deep are broken up
The rivers run with blood
The skies are red with forest fires
The oceans surge a mighty flood.
Yet all is bathed in morning light
And silence reigns supreme
Black cat sits licking on my lap
Contented and serene.
Whatever spirit lords it all
Of nature or a higher power
Take pity on our mortal state
To rescue us from greed and arrogance.
The evil spirit treating others with disdain
Causing so much anguish, hatred, pain
Bind hands so soaked in blood
And lying tongues that war, whilst speaking peace
The foppish bragging fool
Deliver us and what is more
Reward those with humble heart
And let the meek flourish here
To care and care to make a just inheritance
For those that follow - if they do.