One of my dearest longtime friends just had her first baby–the day before my nephew’s birthday, March 15th. God bless the children of spring! May they be blessed with the optimism and energy of this season, born even as they are into the maelstrom of our moment. And may their families be blessed as well.

I wrote a poem for my friend’s son, Aiden, the day he was born.

Here it is, friends. May your house may be blessed as well.

Aiden

3.14.18

 

How fortunate for us

that you should arrive today

just as the great war

is ending, though no one as yet

suspects, just as the youth are rising up

and walking out

of the old schools, just as women are

rising up and running

for office in numbers

never before seen, just as you

appeared in our dream. Your mother’s sisters

held space for her

as she labored

long into the night, the night

sky arranged itself into

precisely this shape, and for anyone

who spoke the auspicious

language of stars it was

holy and whole—

 

at dawn the birds

sang the news

into the astonished air:

at last you were here!

Sing, small pen, of this great good

thing: born today

the peace of nations,

born today

the motherlove

of mammals, born today

the beloved child

of the earth’s long labor,

child of the world’s great turning,

history bends

its long arc

toward you.