Enjoy the day

Today I am not planning to do much other than enjoy my new rocker on the front porch. Or maybe go to the movies. And a good meal or two. Maybe three. Today is a good day to do a whole lot of not much. Today is my birthday.

Here is a poem to mark the day, by my favorite poet, Gary Snyder. I rather like it. "Loowit," by the way, is the Indian name for Mount St. Helens, and I went part way up on my birthday one year after it blew its top and while it was still smoking. Here's the poem...

Enjoy the Day
By Gary Snyder

One morning on a ridgetop east of Loowit
after campfire coffee

looking at the youthful old volcano
breathing steam and sulfer
sunrise lava
bowls of snow

went up behind a mountain hemlock
asked my old advisors where they lay

what's going on?

they say

"New friends and dear sweet old tree ghosts
here we are again. Enjoy the day."

From danger on peaks, by Gary Snyder (2004)