On my birthday

"On my Birthday"  

A strange grey figure wandered into my brain

it was age's grey ghost attired in misty shrouds

to warn me of the passing of time

something I had near forgotten

marching on

and yet what should we see

or dream

or be

are we not here for so short a while

that to heed those warnings

would cramp our minds

and bind them in conventional blinds

that cover up those things of worth

at birth so new and wonderful

the awakening child with eyes so wide

espies the mother 

in the skies of his perception

not yet formed to understand

anything more than her connection 

with food and with love

while the father 

a protective god

who embraces all this and the rest of existence

until

there look they all say

a butterfly

something moving outside his world

something strange and wonderful too

and there awakens

awareness

that precious concept that all should worship

as the god of material existence

awareness not only of family

but of all that is wonderful and strange

exciting and powerfully moving

outside the family aura

of your home

your nest so finely woven

a work of art conceived, born, 

personified

from now all phenomena need detailed study

what is this, what is that, why is this, why is that,

can I do this, can I do that

will I be this, will I be that

tell me now 

I want to know it all

now, 

I want to do it all

now

I want all, now

give me, give me, give me,

this grand illusion of self satisfaction

dominates as we receive 

love and gifts

help and entertainment's

insatiable and greedy

dancing with abandoned joy 

in all that man has made

if despite it all 

the parents are those 

with a sense of harmony

that of the balance between 

the things of man

and the things of nature

then

no amount of study, of money, of property

will compensate for the love of nature

the very essence of our earth

that child will never want for riches

solace 

happiness and love

as this central core of innate understanding

is the key to the joy of life's bounties

and then when at 69 one notices the shadows of time

crossing through the stepping stone perception

of the brain

one recognises the unavoidable decay

the way of all life's nature

there it is understood and received

only as a delicate blurred mirror of inevitability

the passing of all things in their natural order

and as they leave

their final song

its wizened cloth

its saddened sarong of white

fades into the night

and yet it comes again

with mornings rain

the flowers and trees grow

insects go about their daily chores once more

dawn is given 

nothing of ourselves really ever leaves this earth

its changed into a me, an I, a you

and goes back again

changing and changing again

into other elements in this consistency of the stuff

we call life

and inanimate objects

in a way all of it is living

alive

taking part in the circle

the globe

the ball 

of what makes this little blue 

shining jewel of a planet 

earth 

the most magically 

mind-blowingly beautiful

spinning shape 

of what we call 

existence.