The sun, at the year’s beginning, always sets
behind a stand of trees across the lake
on a little peninsula all its own. I discovered
this serendipitously on New Year’s Eve
four years ago. Each year since I’ve come here
to stand in this exact spot. It’s a tradition now,
one filled with awe and wonder. And today
I stood here again, before the tall gold grasses,
before the skim-ice on the lake whose open waters
mirrored the trees and the sky, and I watched
the clouds part just enough, for one brief moment,
to let the light of the sun shine through.