Birthday Poems

Thirty today, I saw

The trees flare briefly like

The candles on a cake,

As the sun went down the sky,

A momentary flash,

Yet there was time to wish

A Birthday Candle

- Donald Justice

Each year your birthday reminds me

That I really want to say

I’m very glad I know you;

I think of you each day.

I hope you enjoy your birthday,

All the pleasures it has in store,

And because I appreciate you,

I hope you have many more!

- Joanna Fuchs

My heart is like a singing bird whose nest is in a water’d shoot;

My heart is like an apple-tree

Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit;

My heart is like a rainbow shell

That paddles in a halcyon sea;

My heart is gladder than all these,

Because my love is come to me.

Raise me a daïs of silk and down;

Hang it with vair and purple dyes;

Carve it in doves and pomegranates,

And peacocks with a hundred eyes;

Work it in gold and silver grapes,

In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;

Because the birthday of my life

Is come, my love is come to me.

- Christina Rosetti

How strange it seems, that old age follows youth! when all the world seemed one's own, at that time, with time enough to seek a higher truth - who'd guess the stairs so steep, so slow to climb? Worn carpets and worn kneecaps are old age - and yet, a blessed time for life of mind: for those who wish, a different sense of wage; free-chosen universal work to find; and yet more blessed still: that earth-bound soul to meet and greet, and work its soil and flowers; to live with gratitude; and scan the whole to find that One which proves the whole world ours. As iron age yields to the gold of truth, so our old age may find within, true youth. A Birthday Celebration

- Michael Shepherd