BirthdayWords

-Enlightened You, on the Eve of your Birthday-

There’s a pulse that prevails now in evenings—
A pulse that’s so beautiful blue,
A pulse long as Niles and strong as the sea.
A pulse that reminds me of you.

You have in your mind eye’s a vision
To shape of your life something grand
And I know that you will. And I watch as you are
Becoming a brilliant-bold man.

I watch as you tackle cold science;
Equations and rigid-hard fact.
I observe how you, too, absorb Hegel,
No passion is there that you lack…

For you give your whole mind to your studies;
Initiative is what you take.
You rarely sojourn, but enlightened, press on;
Your will shall prove tricky to shake.

And I think, as a loving observer,
Who watches from Baltimore’s bay,
That you feel, my dear Mark, that you’re solo,
That parts of your climb will be gray.

But alone you are not in your efforts
To coalesce science and thought.
You stand beside strong men before you,
Who’s paths were not easily wrought.

You stand beside Plato and Caeser.
You sit next to leaders and kings.
And you rest beside men who aspired
To do, with their lives, noble things.

Tis true that their roads were brief thorny,
And maybe they, too, met loud fools,
But in their walks, pressing and forward,
Their minds became sharpest of tools.

Let the horns of your mind lead you onward.
I know you’ll achieve the unique;
Because that’s who you are, Mark— original.
I excitedly await your peak.

Happy Birthday!

.MGW.