Evelyn All Brand New

My new niece is born! My older brother's family is here with us on the island and after hearing the happy news last night we all went down to the beach with a bottle of wine to watch the Super Moon rise over the water and toast our sister and her new daughter. This morning I sat on the deck in the morning sun and wrote a little occasional poem to commemorate her birth.


Evelyn All Brand New

Bringer of great happiness,

radiant little Evelyn

all brand new,

you chose a fragrant July evening

to arrive, rising to the world just

before the Super Moon,

illuminating this bright world

even more.

Add your light

to the sum of light,

wrote Leo Tolstoy (someone

you will want to read later and

we can discuss over tea and sugar

cookies). You have already

accomplished this in your first

hours, radiating joy

to all of us

who already love you

with the kind of love

perfectly impossible to quantify.

The light-heartedness you must

feel after the long journey, blinking

your brilliant eyes in the

sun of your first morning. As you

taste the air, touch your mother’s

skin, listen to your father and sister

coo over you, just think of 
all the summertime adventures 
ahead -

cousins to chase,

raspberries to pick,

trees to climb,

lakes to swim,

rocks to skip.

You bright summer star,

all the world beams
back at you.