For Patrick

For my big brother's birthday, I thought to write him a poem. As I post this, I'm reminded of a New Yorker cartoon, in which Shakespeare is sitting with a very unenthusiastic-looking woman. The caption reads, "Gee thanks, another sonnet." 

For Patrick

That time at the pool party

some mean kid held me

under the water

on purpose,

I was scared,

drowning,

when you grabbed me,

swiftly pulled me up

to the air.

I remember

lying on the wet cement,

possibly after being chest-pumped,

at least coughing water,

half-dead.

You saved me.

My big brother,

the alpha sibling,

you’ve always been

looking out for me.

From my first day,

on earth

I’ve adored you.

But as my

actual hero

I still revere you.

Poetry Garden, Seattle Center

A Gift of Perspective

A Gift of Perspective

~ To My Father On His 70^th Birthday

    September 3, 2016

Holding tight to your neck

riding on your shoulders,

this panarama of the universe

in McKennan Park from

oh-so-high is my earliest

memory. Feeling safe yet

exhilarated and very special

to be carried aloft by you.

From up here a new wide

vantage point on everything.

I was two maybe, who knows,

but the sensation remains

even now forty years later.

You, father and friend,

taught me a way to see

life through a lens

of kindness, generosity,

enthusiasm, good humor,

optimism and confidence

as you did.

I came to learn

not everyone views

the world like this.

When, if tallying up

accomplishments in a life

deeply-lived thus far,

you may have some regrets

and disappointments

as any human will,

please know

you have given a daughter

this perspective;

in fact all this
ravishing world.