Birthday Prayer

B I R T H D A Y  P R A Y E R  by Paul Keller

May the glaciers know they will be safe

beneath these aging memories of blue stars

who sing new light onto the skins of wild oceans

where the ghost shapes of whales still remember

their routes, the history of blood still circling their veins,

just like ours, just like the old rivers reassuring the night,

the fire dreams of these mountains, our quiet prayers,

the breathing of every season's first wind -- or rain;

this ancient sunrise filling with the eyes of coyotes

and owls, all looking back in a language

that burns deep inside all of our bones.