Year's end. Time to enumerate

   My wishes, hopes, prayers, and concerns:

   I'll tip my hat to Robert Burns;

And I might try to stay up late,

To celebrate and to remember.

   And so, as Times Square crowds go mad,

   Here are some of the thoughts I've had

Upon the last night of December.

*

I shun the louts who shriek and shout;

   I duck the vandal-gusts of wind

   Thrashing the trees with fury blind—

I'd rather be inside than out.

Give me a friendly gathering

   Where kindness dwells, for auld lang syne;

   In all my neighbours' hearts and mine,

A festive warmth as glad hearts sing.

Or bless me with the joys of home,

   Companionable solitude

   Away from rowdies brash and rude:

I need not travel, need not roam.

Give me surroundings safe and sweet:

   A bed, some books, a cup of tea --

   Grace, peace, and domesticity

As midnight bells ring to complete

Obsequies of the year just spent,

   To signal January's here

   As pyrotechnics burst and flare

And souls carouse with merriment.

*

Could God bestow on wounded hearts

   The healing of their every ill,

   Grant that the hungry have their fill,

And grace us, as this year departs,

To hear the cry of strife-torn lands,

   To lift the poor man from his heap,

   To dress the dead in restful sleep,

To hold the frail child in safe hands—

Perhaps it's foolishness, this plea

   For heavenly help, unless our hands

   Work to fulfill the great commands

Of love and solidarity.

So let us greet the sequent year

   Raising our good deeds as a hymn,

   Steadying those of tottering limb,

Strengthening those who live in fear.