Happy Birthday

Today is my Sister’s birthday. Today is my Dad’s birthday. I had planned on putting something out early this morning but as you know, the best laid plans can go awry. I couldn’t find my favorite book of poems. I couldn’t get the scanner to work. This list goes on. I finally broke down and started searching on-line for something. Below are some poems I found. The one for my dad has been modified (though I am putting the author’s name with it still).

To my Sister:

Sisters rarely speak of their affection:
More than brothers, do, of course, but less
Than those sweet waves that break before expression,
Feelings too routine to need confess.
Romantic love has phases like the moon:
Waxing, waning, full, and gone from sight.
Sibling love is more a simple tune
Hummed silent and unknowing day and night.
But now I wish to sing out loud, and say
All the things that daily I might hide,
That you might see your inner grace my way,
And share with me my gratitude and pride.
Ah, sister! You will always have my love!
This part of us the years shall not remove!

Nicholas Gordon

To my Dad:

Your Birthday without you is like music
Muted by a distance undisturbed.
It is so faint I cannot tell the feeling,
Though I myself am gripped with pensive sorrow.

I listen all the more for what I cannot
Hear, and you are somewhere close beside me.
"It's joy!" you say, and then I nod, unbending,
Listening still while weeping like fine rain.

Yes, it's joy, and you again are with me.
I turn to you, and I am in your arms.
The music is a rhapsody around me,
And I am safe again and free to cry.

It is so beautiful, I cannot stand it,
I am a torrent, shaking in my gladness,
And you recede, as distant as the music,
Smiling dimly far across the plain.

"Please, please!" I say, yet know that what I'm asking
No longer is. Your day will come and go,
And I will crave and fear its restless turning
Because my happiness must be my pain.

Nicholas Gordon