A New Year Should Begin Again With New Hope Poem by Shalom Freedman

A New Year should begin with new hope-
Beginning again-
But after so many beginnings and so many years
And in Old Age?

I write these lines as if I had written them many times before
What if a new beginning is only a repetition of what one has already done before?

I try to begin again
I force myself forward
An old man tries too to walk faster
And sometimes he can
But slowness and sadness are his essence.

I will begin again
But more slowly than before.