Beannacht, John O’Donohue, 1956-2008, Irish poet

 

 

The old year has worn itself out and given itself up into our memory

 

In the Hand, 1957, oil on tempered masonite.  John Wilde, 1919-2006, American.  Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia

 

Death of a Favorite Bird

W. S. Merwin, American poet, born 1927

What was the matter with life on my shoulder

Age that I was wing delight

That you had to thresh out your breath in the spiked rafters

To the beat of rain

I have asked this question before it knows me it comes

Back to find me through the cold dreamless summer

And the barn full of black feathers

 

 

The rooster has crowed.  The little boy can no longer hold him back.  

And the new year is off……….

 

 

Boy with Rooser, bronze, 1868.  Adriano Ceccioni, 1836-1886, Italian.  Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

The Source of Life 

 The Source of Life, oil on canvas, 1890. Léon Frédéric, 1856-1940, Belgian.  Philadelphia Art Museum

 

The Philadelphia Museum of Art  notes that the Symbolist painter is representing hope and a new world: children emerging from a life-giving stream flowing through a fertile world.

 

 

And it is Hallelujah because it is always Hallelujah despite, because, notwithstanding and as against……

 

Hallelujah, 1984. Leonard Cohen, 1934-2016, Canadian