Gaya Avidor Week 11 Pick a Poet Blog - New Year’s Day by Kim Addonizio

 The poem I selected this week is “New Year’s Day” written by Kim Addonizio. This poem talks about personal experiences while Kim is walking in the cold, wintery, day of a new year. The title is pretty self explanatory, as she is literally experiencing the first day to a new year, but she explains how she is alone. She continues walking, and all that’s around her are some cows with their heads lowered. She uses a simile to compare the cows to the girls that she used to attend high school with. I thought this was interesting because usually comparing someone to a cow would be quite offensive, but in this case she was only comparing their posture to the cows stating that “they are like girls I remember from junior high, who never spoke, who kept their heads lowered…” She then continues to talk about how she doesn’t care for those girls but wonders if they all reflect back on life in the same way. To me, reflecting on past experiences can sometimes be a scary thing to do. You might realize that you didn’t handle some situations in a good way, but you are also able to look back on memories that you created. I feel that reflecting also emphasizes how fast time goes by, and how a single moment can so fast become a past memory. As Kim takes a walk on this rainy first day of a new year, she reflects on past life experiences and wishes to just “walk a little longer” and feel blessed for the present.