running into a new year

I kind of can't believe it's already the end of April? But here we are: the last poem for this year! See y'all in Houston next year. ♥

i am running into a new year
and the old years blow back
like a wind
that i catch in my hair
like strong fingers like
all my old promises and
it will be hard to let go
of what i said to myself
about myself
when i was sixteen and
twenty-six and thirty-six
even thirty-six but
i am running into a new year
and i beg what i love and
i leave to forgive me

—Lucille Clifton (1936-2010), "i am running into a new year," published in Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969-1980 (1987).