Welcome to the Poets Pub and happy New Year! I’m Kim from Writing in North Norfolk, your host for the first Haibun Monday of the year – on New Year’s Day!

While some of us are waking up, possibly with a hangover, after celebrating on New Year’s Eve, others are going to bed, having already lived a whole day of 2024. On the first day of the New Year, we often experience a mix of emotions, and poets have often written about this.

Margaret Avison captures that mix in her ‘New Year’s Poem’, which can be found here. 

^{Image by Annie Spratt on Unsplash}

I rather like this poem by Philip Appleman, with the great title ‘To the Garbage Collectors in Bloomington, Indiana, the First Pickup of the New Year’, which can be found here.

^{Image by Thomas Bormans on Unsplash}

Finally, a poem by Conor O’Callaghan, ‘January Drought’, here.

No matter how you feel about the first day of 2024, I would like you to write about it. Have you set your heart on a new beginning, a move, a relationship, a hobby, etc.? Are you resolved to being stuck indoors until spring or have you been / are you going for a New Year’s Day walk? Is the first day of the New Year a time for reflection, or are you nursing a hangover and just need a little peace and quiet? Aim to write no more than three tight paragraphs, followed by a traditional haiku that includes reference to the season.

If you are new, here’s how to join in:

• Write a haibun in response to the challenge.
• Remember to include a link back to the dVerse Poets Pub from your blog.
• Enter your name and a link directly to your haibun by clicking Mr Linky below, and check the little box to accept the use/privacy policy.
• You will find links to other poets and more will join so check back later to read their haibun.
• Read and comment on other poets’ work – we all come here to have our poems read.
• Comment and participate in our discussion below, if you like. We are a friendly bunch of poets.