To The New Year

W. S. Merwin wrote more than 50 books of poetry and served as the 17th United States Poet Laureate in 2010. As we bid farewell to 2024 and anticipate 2025, hear Merwin's ode "To the New Year":

With what stillness at last

you appear in the valley

your first sunlight reaching down

to touch the tips of a few

high leaves that do not stir

as though they had not noticed

and did not know you at all

then the voice of a dove calls

from far away in itself

to the hush of the morning

so this is the sound of you

here and now whether or not

anyone hears it this is

where we have come with our age

our knowledge such as it is

and our hopes such as they are

invisible before us

untouched and still possible

What does it mean to you that God is already present in the year ahead, waiting to walk with you through it? How will you embrace the New Year as an opportunity for spiritual growth and deepened trust in God’s promises?