My thinking exploded on New Year's Day Mass when the priest decided to end his homily with a poem, In Memoriam, (Ring out, wild bells) by Alfred Lord Tennyson. This beautiful elegy provided time for me to contemplate about the old year and the new one.
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more,
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
The church fell silent after the poem ended and I was filled with the positives of what can be in 2020. When I returned home, I reread the poem and found this beautiful song that lifts Tennyson's words. When I hear the church bells ringing in the future I will think of Tennyson's poem that inspired me to write about my one word 2020, balance here.
In Memoriam, (Ring out, wild bells)
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more,
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Continue reading the poem here.
The church fell silent after the poem ended and I was filled with the positives of what can be in 2020. When I returned home, I reread the poem and found this beautiful song that lifts Tennyson's words. When I hear the church bells ringing in the future I will think of Tennyson's poem that inspired me to write about my one word 2020, balance here.
I plan on keeping a healthy assortment of positivity around me to balance my lifestyle. Will you join me in the one word quest? For the time being, I will follow the Poetry Friday Roundup road to Carol Wilcox's blog site. Our host has an inspirational poem by Maya Angelou that makes me wonder if this was a tribute to the use of one word to guide the yearly journey.
