William Shakespeare

birthday bard

born
or born
near this day
our lord’s year
1564

some educated
beyond
believed the local school
more so somehow
illuminated

aware of the world
where it is
where it was
who
and how

topical
which could be daring
writing about the father
of the kind

all sorts of guess
how he lived

except to know he was not
the starving artist
but
did well
poet
first
then actor

better-heeled
as poet

married
buried near the altar
for respect
and
perhaps some sort
of sponsorship

and
when dug up
to find all bones except
the head

as someone might have wondered
about Einstein
and
the brain

war
distant
near
love places and time
with something of forever
in each effort

magic
discovered
undiscovered countries
also
ethereal
tried as practical
the identity of one who could
compose
so much
and so penetrating
about us

peers
yes
and peerless
and
happy birthday
were you here
while we are here
yet
look forward to a part
with all
great dramas
in the legacy
of
the greatest play and art that
of eternity

c l couch

photo by Samuel Regan-Asante on Unsplash
“Stratford Station” (for translation)
Stratford, London, UK

Birth(Death)day Bard

(23 April in the UK and elsewhere)

If we sang his birthday, someone

Would be owed money for

There seems to be an economy to

The celebration

Since his birth day and his death day

Go as one

Without certitude

(certified baptism- and death-date)

Happy birthday, Queen’s man and King’s man

Patronized by both, though she

Would have Falstaff again,

Whom she was given in The Merry Wives of Windsor

All the world’s not a stage, and we

Are more than seven stages (ages), though

You wrote these in jest

From a character whose

Attitude we should not replicate

Like the speaker who opined

“To thine own self be true”

How many of your jokes do we take

For relevant advice?

Well, four hundred fifty-five

Your candled cake—your

Company would need to help take up the

Flame

While your dark lady rises

From the smoke of mystery that follows

(end of medieval, start of

Renaissance)

You cannot say good or bad day

Birth or death day

Even though we wish you well (I think,

after the school-essay’s done)

And if my words offend

(however parenthetically)

Here’s how I mend:

From Robin, Good day, Will

And I am done, until

C L Couch

Connormah, William Shakespeare – self-made, vectorized from existing PNG/JPG files, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7324293