Last week my students and I unpacked Marge Piercy’s The Late Year. Once we have taken apart and discussed a poem, we write. Sometimes I get a poem out of it. Marge Piercy’s poem begins with “I like Rosh Hashanah late.” I began writing with “I like the New Year,” but quickly realized this is not true for me. I’ve never liked it. I struggle with the idea of forced celebration, especially one that occurs at midnight with lots of violent sound. So I revised. After seeing multiple photos from all around our country of red sunsets, I had to put that into my poem. I am currently raising about 8 monarch caterpillars. This is an uncommon January activity, for sure. It makes my poet-self happy that Marge Piercy’s poem led me to pack all of this into a poem.
The New Year
I’ve never liked the new year
when celebration is forced-fun,
sparklers burn out and become litter.
How browning leaves fall
and frown like an old Muppet-man.
Yet the cardinal still comes to the feeder–
a red flash
on the morning.I’ve never liked the new year
with sing-song rhyme, resolutions
point to some sustained semblance
of sanity. Rain comes again
flooding roads with impassable potholes,
tires always need adjusting.
Yet clouds fire up a sunset
a red reminder to look up
at the end of the day.I reluctantly repent in the cold season,
Margaret Simon, draft
rescue tropical plants and monarch caterpillars.
I flip through soft notebook pages
of felt-tip words and find
a carousel spinning round again.
A red horse I can choose to ride
or not.
Reflections on the Teche 
This is lovely honesty. That forced celebration is something I avoid as well. I love that line, “I reluctantly repent in the cold season.” It’s a nice turn at the end of your poem…to sort of warming up to the idea of new something.
Such an interesting look at how the mentor poem moves you in ways unexpected. Choosing that red horse, riding it and sharing your poem with us and your students….and what your season is like….I especially like your first stanza. That red-flashing cardinal….a bright light in the winter drab. Thanks for sharing this entire story!
[…] Margaret Simon […]
Oh, wow! Having seen an early draft of this poem, I’m SO impressed with your revisions! Weaving red throughout the poem, the “yet” in the second stanza…huzzah! Plus, I totally agree with your dislike of New Year celebrations. The only good thing for me is the egg nog!! 🙂
This is beautiful! I love the contrasts you’ve described in the poem.
When I was way younger, I loved the parties at the new year, but now, & most lately since 2020, the new year doesn’t seem new at all, just another re-run. I do love your red thread running through, Margaret, a brightness amid the “browning leaves”, “floods and potholes”, all dark, except. . . those good things!
This is lovely. I think my favorite stanza is the last one. I especially love “I flip through soft notebook pages of felt-tip words.” Felt-tip words – I had to pause and reread that phrase. Thanks for sharing.
Loving the repetition of colour through this, Margaret. And so much I can relate to!
1) Sunsets! Did you spy my beauty taken from my kayak this week? (I was thinking of you as I paddled!)
2) Potholes after rain. My hubby took 3hrs to drive one 20km stretch of road this week, thanks to road damage after flooding. (And holiday traffic on the road.)
3) We had both boys home for NYE this year… and were all in bed by 10am. But we were also up and gone by 6am next morning – and had been through the Boolboonda Tunnel (192m unlined, unsupported rock tunnel built in 1883/84) while many were still in bed sleeping! (Pics here; https://www.instagram.com/p/CYK2Z1lhW4U)
Oops. 10pm.🤭
Great photos and memories.
I think I would have enjoyed joining your class for the unpacking of Marge Piercy’s poem, and I liked reading her poem and then yours, and seeing where yours went. I do like the red in yours and wonder if there’re more layers there in that red… I also like your weaving in nature in each stanza, and am very taken with your “carousel spinning round again,” there’s something fascinating about them… Thanks for this powerful and moving poem Margaret!
I like how you started out literally with the mentor poem and then knew it wasn’t right for you and changed it. I love the vibrant colors in sunsets, although am more partial to a mix of yellow, orange, and fuchsia than red. Monarch caterpillars in January?! That’s all I needed to hear! Oh, I can’t wait for May now.
Margaret, you are an inspiration in so many ways, so often. Like last week your poem inspired me to write this week. And here you are being inspired in a different way from another poet. I love that you got that poem out of the Rosh Hashanah line. I can see why that would make your poet heart happy! My favorite might be, amidst the things you don’t like about new year’s, you add these sweet lines:
“Yet clouds fire up a sunset
a red reminder to look up
at the end of the day.”
Your poem rings so true. And to me, my new year is always September. I love that you shared a Marge Piercy poem with your students.
Great stuff! Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
Agree with Mary Lee–great, red revisions!