The New Year, Without Madness.

In the end, the new year is not about the new.
It is about subtraction. Pulling off the barnacles
that have grown as you traveled, the hard harsh
stuff of the world that is loud and insistent
and slows your progress without returning
any speed or strength or beauty.

It is not easy, this peeling off of barnacles.
They cling. They hide beneath the waterline,
hoping you will not notice them,
Prying them off takes work, one by one,
bit by bit, reclaiming the smooth surface
of what you were meant to be,

No single one of them make a difference.
That can be discouraging. But keep at it,
chipping away. Do the work. Do not focus
on what is left to do. Focus on what is done,
and then the next one. And the next one.
And then, one day, you are done,
and you can sail, free, faster, sleek
as life was meant to be.

About this poem

Another one of those “started to write one thing and ended up somewhere else all togther” poems.

I have been in this week between Christmas and New Years, been looking at my life and work, which had begun to feel a little out of control. As is always the case, it is not a matter of adding to, but subtracting from that rights things. That work is in progress (again), with faith and love at the center.

Or it is about sailboats, which are one of my great metaphors of life.

The photograph was taken in North Adams, Mass.

Be well. Travel wisely,

Tom