for Susan on her birthday
 
Oh that I could write you a poem for your birthday
to greet you like the sun rising through the summer trees.
Today it's raining so ******* my roof and the skies are so grey
that such a thought seems, like you are, very distant.
 
My heart holds many thoughts of other birthdays spent together.
My memory's album is rich in images of these special times:
a boat on a river, sculptures in a park, a picnic in the woods.
Always the warm sun, the summer light, the gentle air.
 
A *Yu Fue song of the Tang dynasty says that Sun and Rain
together make the earth fragrant but the feet *****,
and that the foreigner,  whose home lies beyond the edge of the clouds,
should always hold to a happy heart however far way.