‘Reflection on the Approach of Another Birthday’: A Poem by Jeffrey Essmann

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Reflection on the Approach
of Another Birthday

“He found them in a wilderness, a wasteland…”

—Deuteronomy 32:10

I find, I fear, I can’t outleap,
As age begins its yearly creep
To center stage, the gnawing sense
That time is getting shorter yet
For all my failings to beget
Some reasonable self-defense.

And yes, I guess I’m fairly good:
I more or less do what I should,
Yet nonetheless can’t lose the taste
Of years too silly and too sad
(And some, quite frankly, simply bad)
That bear the sourness of waste.

Nor can I either, God be blessed,
Deny that in that sorry mess
A constant mercy was deployed
That righted me each time I tipped
And even now, each time I slip
Enfolds me in its boundless joy.

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Jeffrey Essmann is an essayist and poet living in New York. His poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and literary journals, among them Agape Review, America Magazine, Dappled Things, the St. Austin Review, U.S. Catholic, Grand Little Things, Heart of Flesh Literary Journal, and various venues of the Benedictine monastery with which he is an oblate. He is editor of the Catholic Poetry Room page on the Integrated Catholic Life website.