Nigh Another Birthday
** Nigh Another Birthday **
I’ve passed so many birthdays,
That a few dozen of those special days
Fall away in a gray haze,
With too many forgotten by everyone (then or lately),
And were spent like most of my other days,
Which I don’t really mind — without presents, singing,
Cards, and other kinds of celebratory cliches.
It’s really a destined plan
God made before my birth, that He has completely in hand.
Beyond these many decades of years after many passed,
I now greet each birthday with profound gratitude,
Because when illness first hit me at age eight,
This length of my time living NO one had forecast.
Still, now I never want to be
Too old to ask for a kiss, or for a story
Filled with twists and adventure, told to me
At bedtime, as I fall off to dream,
While hearing your voice, my darling,
Which I love so dearly.
I never want to age so much
To be too old for a starlight’s wish;
Or to outgrow the truths of Christmas.
Always may I stay in awe of God’s mysteries
And omnipotent, miraculous ways; and to see
The marvel in every sunrise, every sunset I breathe.
Lord God, may I never be too old for poetry!
To find all its words and lines within me leap
Over many pages, along with the verses of others I read;
Or to hear the sung lyrics of great arias,
And know the well-recited stage soliloquies.
The notes of support and love I receive,
Like treasure, I will also keep.
I never want to age beyond the end
Of Hope; or my meaning’s journeying; or delighting
In Nature as a friend;
Or enjoying, like a child, long hours of play and pretend.
May I never age too old to allow
My heart its freedom…To feel. To grow. To enfold
All, dear Lord, your graced splendors
In this on-going here and now.
———————————————————————————————————————————————-
*** The coming of Christmas makes me think of my birthday, which comes ten days after Christmas on January 4th. Thus, this poem
had its provoked thought into being.
(c) sally young eslinger 12/18/2022
Glory to God — and Merry Christmas. God bless us, every one!
Copyright © Sally Eslinger | Year Posted 2022
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