Friday, April 9, 2010

A birthday poem


When I got up this morning, a bald eagle swooped by and perched in the tree I can see from my bed... He's still there!

Radical

Unearth your roots

Shake ‘em at the sky

Uphold your traditions

Hold up your radical

Hold down your fort

Breathe easily, not queasily

*

Find and mine what’s obvious

By opening your eyes wider

Wide enough to take in

What you thought was forever outlawed

Wide enough to put out

A part of you you forgot

*

Love more

Love your weird self

Love what’s aching to come out

Love what struggles to get in

Unbind your weariness

And offer it to the sunrise

Express your weird self but

Keep it simple

Don’t be afraid to ask

And unlearn whatever’s holding you back

-- Stephen Silha, April 9, 2010 (my 60th birthday)

1 comment:

X. P. Callahan said...

Happy 60th, dear Stephen, all the way from beautiful Oakland. I remember when you turned up on my Vashon doorstep on the morning of my 50th (11 long years ago now), bearing a beautiful piece of dark green glass that today graces one of the bookcases in my office. Hope your birthday was grand and that the year to come will be also.