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This poem is taken from Poetry Nation 1 Number 1, 1973.

A Birthday Triptych Peter Scupham
A BIRTHDAY TRIPTYCH

I.

Birth days: as of the spirit.
She cannot dissemble.
We break a fiery bread.

How should we navigate
The waves' coarse turmoil
Without appointed stars?

A luminary day, then.
Light of the first magnitude,
Confirm our chosen course.

Tides, in their slow recession,
Delay about your fingers
A light sweet freight of shells.

When fresh seas break,
May that beached, miraculous wrack
Still hold its water lights.
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