BIRTHDAY PRESENT

                                                                                                                                                    I am eighty today

How can I have lived so long

Such a complexity of work, people, events

And turn to the window

To catch in my dazzled eye

A scarlet tanager

In the cherry tree.

                                                                                                                                                  The last time I beheld 

That scarlet and black 

Sumptuous bird

Was when I moved into

This house by the sea

Twenty years ago.

He flew to the flowering

Andromeda.

                                                                                                                                                    I have travelled so far

Through time

To arrive at this moment

Awestruck.

                                                                                                                                                The complex forms of being

And a magic bird

Gathered up

Into one overwhelming

NOW!

                                                                                                                                             Nothing else exists 

Ecstasy and peace

Are mine forever

On this birthday.