Birthday Poem

On November 1, I (Susan) turned 40. I don't feel any different, maybe just a little bittersweet about saying goodbye to my 30s, which were some awesome years. Got married when I was 31, got my PhD at 33, bought my first home at 34, got tenure (and ran a half marathon) at 39. I kinda feel like I should spend my 40s celebrating. :) Anywhoo. Here's a poem I love to read every year on my birthday:

For the Anniversary of My Death by W. S. Merwin

Every year without knowing it I have passed the day
When the last fires will wave to me
And the silence will set out
Tireless traveler
Like the beam of a lightless star

Then I will no longer
Find myself in life as in a strange garment
Surprised at the earth
And the love of one woman
And the shamelessness of men
As today writing after three days of rain
Hearing the wren sing and the falling cease
And bowing not knowing to what

W. S. Merwin, “For the Anniversary of My Death” from The Second Four Books of Poems (Port Townsend, Washington: Copper Canyon Press, 1993). Copyright © 1993 by W. S. Merwin. Reprinted with the permission of The Wylie Agency, Inc.

Ooh. Ouch. Might seem a little morbid to some, but I think considering one's death is all about affirming one's life. And, to make the YA tie here, has anyone noticed lately a lot of great YAL books being published about death and dying? or the consideration of death? This poem would make a good intertextual fit with Chris Crutcher's Deadline,


Jenny Dowhnham's Before I Die, Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall, and
Gayle Forman's If I Stay (which I've posted about it here), all of which encourage teen readers to consider and affirm the life they're living.