New Year's Eve 2008 Poem by Gene Richards

Oh eight has passed by, that year is now gone
We'll see the new one in with that ridiculous song
But I've always wondered who was Lang Syne of Auld
I find that it's not a person but Scottish, for "days of old"

Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?
I suggest we remember and reflect, how our lives have entwined
For though we look forward, to the next year anew
A new years resolution to swear, bidding the old one adieu

It's the old year that shapes, how we look to the future
The resolution we make, is a bad habit to censure
And while we forgive ourselves, of those terrible deeds
We need to forgive others, and find ourselves freed

It's still a beautiful place, this world where we live
The key to it's appreciation, the ability to forgive
Storing anxiety and hate, past the strike of midnight
Is most assuredly the best way, to perpetuate your blight

We are all more alike, than we care to concede
We all love our children, our blood red when we bleed
Its only religion and politics, for whose sins we commit
Lennon "Imagined" the same, "War Is Over" if you want it

So on this night when we celebrate, the turn of the year
And with our friends and family, drink way too much beer
Spare a thought for our foes, if we can even remember
And make the new year a good one, all the way to December

So Happy New Year to all my friends on the net
A good life is out there, to go out there and to get
May your days be exceedingly merry in two thousand and nine
And we'll take a cup o' kindness yet, for days of auld lang syne.