Transitions

Betsy Joseph

January 28, 2024

It’s time for all to bid adieu

to a year now wholly spent

and think upon the deeds now done

and where they’ve left us since.

For those who now fare better

than they fared the year before,

let us lift a cup of gladness

to what has been restored.

For others who have keenly felt

an altered state in health,

may the coming year bring hope and faith

and calm the fears that illness dealt.

May we breathe free with open hearts,

sing truth throughout our land,

stay deaf to that which makes no sense

and on no balance stands.

Betsy Joseph lives in Dallas and has poems which have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies. She is the author of two poetry books published by Lamar University Literary Press: Only So Many Autumns (2019) and most recently, Relatively Speaking (2022), a collaborative collection with her brother, poet Chip Dameron.

In addition, she and her husband, photographer Bruce Jordan, have produced two books, Benches and Lighthouses, which pair her haiku with his black and white photography.