New Year Resolve / To Shove Away The Clutter / To Come Back to Still Water

The time has come
To stop allowing the clutter
To clutter my mind
Like dirty snow,
Shove it off and find
Clear time, clear water.

Time for a change,
Let silence in like a cat
Who has sat at my door
Neither wild nor strange
Hoping for food from my store
And shivering on the mat.

Let silence in.
She will rarely speak or mew,
She will sleep on my bed
And all I have ever been
Either false or true
Will live again in my head.

For it is now or not
As old age silts the stream,
To shove away the clutter,
To untie every knot,
To take the time to dream,
To come back to still water.

~ May Sarton, “New Year Resolve” from Collected Poems, 1930-1993

Notes:

• Thank you Mimi for introducing me to this poem. It is an annual year end pilgrimage to your post: A Final Thought For 2012.
• Photo: Karin Ziegler with “the world loves blue” in totes gebirge in upper Austria (via Litverve)