Birthdays

Here's a fun acrostic poem I wrote to celebrate a close friend's Big 3.0.

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Happy 30th Birthday Penny!

Happy Birthday dear friend, and may I reminisce

About our two years of Avenue housemate-ness?

Penny, there were many wonderful happenings:

Post-tea tea, the chart of tea (Christian, Bohemian…

You may have to remind me of the other ones)

30 The Avenue. My first home in Durham.

The first night after I’d moved in, you made me tea,

Helped with the landing book-cases, made me welcome.

Birthdays; the terrible vacuum cleaner Rodney,

In his generosity, bestowed on us to

Replace a broken one; your lemon drizzle cake;

The cupboard too full of mugs; roasted vegetables;

Hanging washing on the line inside the garage;

Driving Lady Gem; marking parties; the quotes board;

A house expedition to North Road for food, the

Year of the great big snow (and bigger icicles).

Penny, a pair of your fluffy slippers still moves

Everywhere we do: come and wear them with us soon!

Now the world has been blessed with thirty years of you.

No words can fully express what it’s like to know

You; excellent friend, have a Happy Penny-Day!

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Another idea for a birthday poem, using the recipient's date of birth to determine the syllables of each line.

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Birthday Syllabic 3/5/86

Just for now,

it's that time of year:

leave all uncertainties behind,

just for a little while.

Just for now,

embrace birthday cheer:

it may feel like a bumpy ride,

still, crack a secret smile.

Birthday Syllabic 27/8/86

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You said,

you didn't see that there was

anything very poetic

about things like orthopaedic

mattresses.  And because

I thought

you'd found something quite profound,

and so wonderfully ironic;

that you'd played the part of critic

and parodied the sound

of a

whole swathe of modern poets,

I thought I'd hi-jack your idea,

so I've written about them here

(and I hope you like it).