The perfect poem for New Year's Day

If you have never read the poetry of Billy Collins, stop what you are doing and google his work. To quote Sizzles, "He is my everything, and my best!"

Happy New Year and Enjoy!


Aristotle
by Billy Collins from Picnic, Lightening (the first stanza)

This is the beginning.
Almost anything can happen.
This is where you can find
the creation of light, a fish wriggling onto land,
the first word of Paradise Lost on an empty page.
Think of an egg, the letter A,
a woman ironing on a bare stage
as the heavy curtain rises.
This is the very beginning.
The first-person narrator introduces himself,
tells us about his lineage.
The mezzo-soprano stands in the wings.
Here the climbers are studying a map
or pulling on their long woolen socks.
This is early on, years before the Ark, dawn.
The profile of an animal is being smeared
on the wall of a cave,
and you have not yet learned to crawl.
This is the opening, the gambit,
a pawn moving forward an inch.
This is your first night with her,
your first night without her.
This is the first part
where the wheels begin to turn,
where the elevator begins its acent,
before the doors lurch apart.