I wish you better.
Whatever you didn’t get,
lost.
Whatever in this last year
you would hope to forget,
I wish you amnesia.
If not forever, just for the time it takes
to imagine, to place new hope
step by step.
And, whatever in this last year you did not receive,
or rather lost as something unable to be
kept in the hands –
I wish you better.
And if not better,
then a balm for your former pains.
A new view,
out through mist dissolving,
curtains drawn back to receive the sun.
Yes, I wish you that thing,
wish you whatever your heart,
if it could find a name,
would place its value on –
that illusive prize
which makes us hope in every new year’s
unknowns,
as though this year might
be the year we arrive at it.
And yet, I think it’s not until
in hindsight
when we look back,
we see how all along we owned it.
These treasures of the heart
undefined.
And that its our losses,
the things that have strummed the heart’s strings,
that were the important things.
Which is why I don’t wish you
amnesia, not least as much as I do
memory –
and wisdom to treasure,
and recognise again
what are the main things,
that we might not leave them
behind.
Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
January 1, 2021
Living Tree Poetry 
This is so very beautiful, Ana Lisa. Thank you for these most generous, loving wishes. I wish the same for you. xo
Life is not a straight lineit’s a downpour of gifts, please -hold out your hand
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Thank you my new poetic friend, I value your presence here. And thanks for your important words in response, may we keep our hands out. xx
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As Julia said, beautiful and generous! Thank you for these wishes.
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Thank you Stephen, whom I always hold right here, near the heart.
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Thank you for these beautifully wrought words and wishes, Ana Lisa. These in particular spoke to me as a woman with more years behind her than in front:
“And yet, I think it’s not until
in hindsight
when we look back,
we see how all along we owned it.
These treasures of the heart
undefined.”
Oh yes! And oh how often we fail to notice the gifts and blessings, the hidden Hope and drops of wisdom in our hands until we open them wide to receive the new and the next. Blessings and love to you, dear poetic friend. xo 😊❤️
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Thank you Joy, my friends whose presence matches her name. A thousand hidden blessings upon your year. Much love xx
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