Not your average New Year’s Wish Poem
My New Year’s Wish
2024 Version
I used the help of ChatGPT to revise the poem I wrote in 2021. Here is an updated (and hopefully better) version with improved meter, better rhyming, and more poetic…
I’d wave a wand of magic, bright and grand,
To vanish all my woes to shadowland.
But such a wish is folly, plain to see,
For joy is sweetest when it’s paired with agony.
I’d sip the elixir, undying and pure,
To halt the march of time, to find a cure.
Yet such a draught is madness, wild and bold,
Nature seeks balance, crafting new from old.
I’d offer prayers for wealth, unbound and vast,
To forge a life of riches, unsurpassed.
But such a prayer would steal my drive away,
The hunger that propels my dreams each day.
So no, I’ll not yearn for endless gain,
For boundless life, nor pleasure free from pain.
Not for love without condition’s touch,
For such desires might rob me of too much.
I wish for naught but courage, fierce and true,
In pursuit, whether I win or rue.
For victory and defeat, mere names they are,
Just like life and death, from near or far.
These are but stages in the cycle’s flow,
A dance of light and shadow, high and low.
I wish for you, as I do for me,
Courage to stand, to fight, to be free.
Ambition to chase what dreams may come,
For in their pursuit, our hearts hum.
Love, unforgiving, a treasure untold,
A story of warmth in a world so cold.
2021 Version
I would like to wave
the magic wand
to wish for all my miseries
to disappear,
but that would be silly -
for I cannot experience pleasure
If there is no pain.
I would like to drink
the potion of immortality
to cure all diseases
and death,
but that would be insane -
nature needs balance
to build new from the old.
I would like to pray
for unyielding wealth
and make myself rich,
but that would deprive
me of my hunger
to pursue the dreams.
I will not wish for
unlimited prosperity,
Infinite Immortality
boundless pleasures,
unconditional love,
for these wishes
will deprive me of
the pursuit of
these states.
I wish for nothing else,
but for the courage
of pursuit,
victory or defeat
they are just names,
just like
life and death -
they are just stages,
in the cycle of life.
I wish you
the same thing
I wish for myself,
courage to fight
for what’s right,
ambition to pursue
for dreams will come true,
unforgiving love
that’s a treasure trove.