Happy Birthday to Me

As far as I'm concerned it's always the right time for Mary Oliver but this one especially has been on my mind lately. So, in honor of my special day:

"You don't want to hear the story
of my life, and anyway
I don't want to tell it, I want to listen

to the enormous waterfalls of the sun.

And anyway it's just the same old story-
a few people just trying,
one way or another,
to survive.

Mostly, I want to be kind,
and nobody, of course, is kind,
or mean, for a simple reason.

And nobody gets out of it, having to
swim through the fires to stay in
this world.

except from "Dogfish"