Briar, teaching Boo Radley how to solve a dog treat puzzle – December 2021
Billy Collins, well-loved poet and two-term US Poet Laureate, wrote his poem Fiftieth Birthday Eve, looking at the big 5-0 staring him down from a March midnight years ago. I’ve linked two of his original poems at the bottom of today’s blog post. Today, here is a Collins-inspired poem to celebrate Briar’s birthday tomorrow, with an equally enthusiastic nod to pine trees and whales and empty suitcases and dog treat puzzles – and a world of other extraordinary things.
On Your Sixty-First Birthday Eve
61. The figure alone flashes a stick-figure photo of us,
me with the tens-digit rounded bottom,
you standing tall in the thin, skinny ones
I want to daydream here on the Johnson Funny Farm,
of traveling to Europe, to Ireland’s green shores
a place of peaceful solitude, a respite from the world
But I keep picturing 61, seeing us contentedly-rooted
on this rural Georgia pine tree farm, evergreen-forest-moored
our place of peaceful solitude, our respite from the world
I try contemplating the sufferings of our luggage,
longing for more purpose behind the attic door,
lips zipped too tight to yell down their resfeber
But even an adventure to the world’s great places
touted as culture or well-traveled landmarks,
cannot diminish the worlds of wonder here, as
61, standing at the threshold
with a suitcase to home –
our toothbrushes, our worn-soled shoes,
our farm plat a traveler’s vast world map
By evening we’ll rest our feet by our fire
drink coffee, eat leftover brick slices of fruitcake
warmed in a moistened paper towel
in the microwave
thinking nothing particularly notable of the
authentic rural life we live
the most well-traveled journeymen will never know.
And this day, as every day, we set out
with smaller suitcases – daybags, backpacks,
handbags, totes
grocery bags with local foods, souvenirs of home
the most well-traveled journeymen will never see.
It follows tradition – this marked trip around the sun,
the cake and ice cream with candles aflame
the gift with a wrapping, tied with a string
The rest is up to us – to see the wonder in our ordinary –
to celebrate the Whale Days as we do Pine Tree Days and
Empty Suitcase Days and Dog Treat Puzzle Days
ever as ceremoniously as we do birthdays.
Happy Birthday, Briar!
You can read Billy Collins’ Fiftieth Birthday Eve here:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=38216
You can read Billy Collins’ Whale Day here (or listen):
https://www.kwbu.org/post/likely-stories-whale-day-billy-collins-0#stream/0
Common Threads 