1st January 2024

It’s hard to believe that I woke up in 2024 this morning. Back in June 1949, Orwell’s book Nineteen Eighty-Four was published. 1984 has come and gone, I’m forty years older, so much has changed – and yet nothing has changed. The New Year’s Eve television programmes were much the same, and January is just as cold. However, this morning it was sunny and the sky was blue, which encouraged me to pull on my boots, button up my coat, and set off for a walk.

I checked in with the horses down the road, to see if they were OK after last night’s fireworks, and hoped to say hello to the heron, but he wasn’t there. Nobody else was out walking, but a few cars passed by. In our garden we already have snowdrop and daffodil shoots, so things look hopeful. I returned to do the same things I do every Monday: drink a cup of coffee, have a chat with a friend on Google Meet, and read another chapter of my current book.

bright sparks of fireworks
fade into reality
just another day

Kim M. Russell, 1st January 2024

This New Year’s Day I’m hosting Haibun Monday at the dVerse Poets Pub, where we’re being human. Some of us are waking up, possibly with a hangover, after celebrating on New Year’s Eve, while others are going to bed, having already lived a whole day of 2024, when we often experience a mix of emotions.

37 thoughts on “1st January 2024”

  2. This is gorgeously worded, Kim! I agree.. so much has changed and yet it sometimes feel like nothing has changed at all! I can relate to the feeling. Love the haiku! It mirrors the mood of the haibun perfectly ❤️❤️❤️

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  3. Those beautiful pictures surely show why you would want to take a walk! First day of 2024 or not, it’s the calendar that changes not our lives. I agree with Sanaa: the haiku is a brilliant reflection of the entire mood.

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  5. Just another day… or is it? There is hopefulness underlying your haibun that make a new haiku.

    new year’s day hopefuls:
    snowdrops, sunny blue skies and
    fresh daffodil shoots

    I loved your prompt and the reflections it has inspired with all of the dVerse poets. Thanks for starting out the year with a bang! (But not fireworks.) 😊

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  6. Funnily enough it does feel a bit of ‘more of the same’. I’ve long given up making New Year resolutions. However, a New Year does arrive with the hope for better things.

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  8. Happy New Year, Kim. As I read your haibun, the Beatles’ Here Comes The Sun, played in my mind. Beautiful. Happy Continuation. We call it new for record keeping but its all part of the old… we are lucky for this. All the best. I loved all you did in this glorious morning. Hope the animals soon forget the fireworks–that heron, I hope she remembers she has wings… Blessings. Thanks for the lovely prompt that has gotten me out of hibernation. xo
    Onward…

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  9. Kim, your haibun beautifully weaves the passage of time with a sense of continuity in the midst of change. The imagery of checking on the horses, the absent heron, and the budding snowdrops creates a vivid and comforting snapshot of the new year. Your ability to find beauty in the ordinary is truly captivating. 🌸

    ~David

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  13. You are so right, everything’s changed but it’s barely changed at all…life is one day after another whether it’s Christmas or New Years Day. Beautifully written and I love your photos such a delightful place to live. The horses, country lanes, the houses and is it a lake or a stream where the boats are? Either way it is so beautiful thank you for sharing.

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  14. Love how you ended with ‘just another day’ …. another day full of possibility, meetups and LIFE. Happy New Year and thank you for a great challenge, my haibun was complete in probably five minutes. It poured out of me.

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