The Earth Feels Old Tonight

May Sarton's 1937 New Year's Greeting

The earth feels old tonight

And we who live and stand on the cold rim

Face a new year.

It is raining everywhere

As if the rain were mercy,

As if the rain were peace,

Peace falling on our hair.

Open your hearts tonight, let them burn!

Let them light a way in the dark.

Let them one by one affirm there is hope for a staff:

I say it will flower in our hands,

We shall go garlanded.

There is the fine fresh stuff of faith for a coat:

We shall go warm.

We shall go on by the light of our hearts.

We shall burn mightily in the new year.

We shall go on together.

O you who stand alone on the rim of the earth and are cold,

I salute you here!

(Information on May Sarton.)

You can watch live Earthcams at various locations on Times Square in NYC, including streaming video of the ball drop at midnight Eastern Standard Time. Also at this link are livecams in various cities across the nation and the world.

And as we bring in the New Year here in New Mexico, let's honor all those suffering from the Iraq War, the tsunami and other painfully sad occurrences, man-made or natural, with a moment of silence and an awareness of how privileged we are to be here welcoming another year.