A New Year
(April 6th, 2025)
A new year
Is not when it's January,
It is not when something new happens,
Or when a new month begins.
Don't keep your ears up—
It is none of these times.
A new year
Is when you clock another year.
You become saddled with choices;
Now, you hear all kinds of voices.
Making a decision becomes a turning point.
A new year—
New age plus a new beginning,
Leaving you to wonder if there's more to growing,
Than adding up numbers,
Than finally being there.
But of course,
There's more, if you want more.
There's pain with gain,
Pleasure with pain.
You choose—I look.
In all, most choices,
They either make or mar.
But be wise enough to tread the right path,
To avoid the stories that touch the heart.
— Gift Jae
“A New Year” by Gift Jae is a poem that challenges the conventional idea that a new year begins in January or with the start of a new month.
Instead, the poem redefines a new year as a personal milestone when one adds another year to their age. This moment brings with it the burden of choices, responsibilities, and self-reflection.
It’s a period when one takes decisions that shape one’s life. The poem advises that one should choose wisely, as decisions can either build or break a person, and wrong turns often lead to regretful stories.
About the Poet
Gift Jae is the pen name of Eno James Ukpong, an indigene of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.
She attended several schools across the country and completed her senior secondary education in Nsukka.
Currently, she is an undergraduate student at the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where she is studying Mass Communication.
At seventeen years old, she is the first daughter in her family.
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