10 Years Ago my Dad Wrote me a Birthday Poem. Today I Return the Favor for his 60th.

Evan Cudworth
Jul 26, 2017 · 2 min read

Just before my 20th birthday, my dad sent me this poem:

It’s wonderful because it seems portentous—a foreboding warning about how turning 20 will be a broken brick. But it’s the exact opposite of that. Nineteen Bricks is about how age is an important but arbitrary number; open to interpretation.

In any case, I thought I’d return the favor as my father turns 60 today. Love you dad.

59 Bricks
(For Dad)

59 pristine bricks on a beach

who knows what reason

why the 60th brick was broken

some purpose we suppose a

lazy mason or wayward youth

unaware that universal laws of

force and time collaborate to

create visible circumstance

/

59 pristine bricks on a beach and

number 60 crumbled

artist, philosopher, theologian and

poet build their case:

/

“we all begin with raw materials and

face the daunting task of making sense of

random numbers and chance encounters with bricks”

Evan Cudworth

Written by

dancing and writing and other human stuff

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