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.