Welcome back to The Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios. I'm Sean Johnson, and today is Thursday, September 12, 2024.

And today happens to be my birthday. It's okay if you didn't get me anything. In the Hobbit tradition, I'm going to give you something on my birthday instead,

and that is a reading of one of my favorite poems about birthdays from one of my favorite

contemporary poets. Ted Cooser, it's called A Happy Birthday.

This evening, I sat by an open window and read till the light was gone

and the book was no more than a part of the darkness.

I could easily have switched on a lamp, but I wanted to ride this day down into night,

to sit alone and smooth the unreadable page with the pale gray ghost of my hand.

I love this poem as a birthday poem because it is and is not like so many poems about birthdays.

The typical poem, at least from an older poet, about birthdays tends to be rather melancholy, contemplation of the time when birthdays will cease,

if you will. And here, that is still present. There is a kind of

melancholy, or maybe even that is too strong a word. There is a sobriety about this poem. As

Robert Frost says, nothing gold can stay.

Life tends to run on toward its end.

The leaves turn brown and fall from the tree.

Dawn gives way to day, which gives way to dusk, which gives way tonight. And in this poem, it is evening.

But there's a kind of peace about this evening.

I sat by an open window and read till the light was gone,

and the book was no more than a part of the darkness.

I wanted to ride this day down into night.

There's no panic.

There's no artificial behavior.

...