The New Year

        The New Year's a notebook whose pages are white;

        The New Year's a penny untarnished and bright;

        The New Year's a baby just this moment born,

         A beautiful baby asleep in the morn.

         Let's write in the notebook without any smudges,

         Let's spend the bright penny and settle our grudges.

         Let's comfort the baby who'll cry when he wakes

         And discovers he's stuck with his father's mistakes!

                             by Ernestine Cobern Beyer (my mother)