Where will you find yourself in those ten seconds before New Year’s?

In the playful chaos of Times Square? Or watching the celebration at Times Square from the comfort of your couch? Dancing at a club or a pub? Working? Relaxing after getting the kids to bed? Taking a night hike? Staring at the night sky’s stars in the cold air? Sticking your toes in the warm sands of a beach in the Southern Hemisphere?

No matter where you are in this beautiful world: here’s a countdown poem for breathing and bringing love into the New Year!

10.

In the crowds,
we all dance together,
but apart.

9.

We all love
like love should be
shared as freely as confetti and champagne on New Year’s Eve,

8.

we all know love is a cycle of energy
like water or oxygen
circling freely, and yet

7.

it is bottled up or captured behind dams
like the way some of us are shy, but
still wanting,

6.

making wishes
on the future
like shooting stars

5.

that we’ll never catch
but we try
anew—every new year,

4.

cheering as the seconds
tick downwards
our pulse quickening,

3.

our eyes widening,
lips parting
to catch each other’s wishes

2.

before this second
of this second
disappears, as

1.

we kiss
in the new
year.

~

Relephant:

New Year’s Eve: fun traditions around the world.

~

Author: Jessie Wright

Editor: Caitlin Oriel

Image: Stuart Moreton/Flickr