I am lying on a cot in a post-partum recovery room at St. Joseph’s in Tacoma as I write this, and my newborn son, Jacaranda (Jack) James Russell Wiseman is lying in his bassinet just a few steps away from me, with my wife sleeping next to him. He’s healthy, fierce, and has my chin but my wife’s nose. We are so blessed.
During the last couple of days, as we navigated this journey, I found occasion to write this poem, expressing my hopes for my son. I think it works as a general piece, and I hope you enjoy it. I’ll be back next week with something fun.
A Sense of Wonder
You were born on the fourteenth floor
This building raised by human hands
A world of wonder to explore
Your birthright in these blessed lands
Far up above the asphalt streets
You strained and first unleashed your cry
Echoing through the birthing suites
Of this hospital in the sky
The wars we fought the blood we shed
The price we paid for freedom dear
Was but prelude to what’s ahead
All done so that you could be here
So too the sensors and vaccines
Inventions for your benefit
The endless medical machines
Were designed to your ease permit
How will I help you comprehend
The all-out efforts made before
On which your life will oft depend
After we leave this fourteenth floor
The space race and the atom bomb
Computers and the internet
A phone that fits within your palm
High in the sky a jumbo jet
The things you in your life will see
Will far outstrip what we have now
In thirty years there well could be
A starship with you in the prow
And yet in living memory
You would have been born in the dirt
Before just this last century
You might have owned a single shirt
And not been thought as destitute
The past was poor beyond our ken
We feast upon the piquant fruit
Of geniuses who lived back then
But how to raise you in this age
Of whirling slashing piercing change
When freedom seems fit for a cage
And each day runs so wild and strange
I do not worry for your fate
Your gifts will show up manifest
You won’t succumb to easy hate
No doubt you’ll leave the world impressed
But wonder—that I hope you find
The seeing that takes breath away
The hearing that captures your mind
The feeling that turns work to play
Yes wonder—that I hope to give
To stand in awe before the past
To dream of worlds in which you’ll live
To make the future bright and vast
Oh wonder—it will soothe your fear
The father to his new son said
Seek wonder while you live my dear
And do not stop until you’re dead
END
Thanks as always for reading! Have a great week. I surely will, long and sleepless though it may be. Viva Jack!
This is such a sweet poem. We must never our ability to wonder.
Owen, this was such a wise and beautiful tribute to this fortunate little guy who has you for a daddy. I can’t wait to meet him💖