Responsive Poetry from Adolfo Caso - A Birthday: for Me!

I love responsive poetry...poetry that is written, inspired by a recent event, perhaps even partly, by my blog article wishing Adolfo Happy Birthday recently... If you haven't already read it, click over now and come back!

As I read this latest poem from Adolfo, since he starts with his first birthday party when he was 14, it started me to wonder what my friend might have looked like in his early years. So with Google's help, this is my mind's images for him...although the one at 14 was the only one about the right age and is not what I would have chosen...hope the pics engenders a bit of fun!

*

And then he was 14...solemn for his school picture...

A Birthday: for me!

By Adolfo (Al) Adolph Caso

Though fourteen,

And,

Much to my surprise,

New relatives and friends

Celebrated

The first Birthday in my life;

Thus giving value to Little Al.

Yet, I was the same person

As the day before,

One who hardly spoke English,

Who spoke a dialect no one understood.

And, yes,

My father named me Adolfo,

After Sant’Adolfo--

Sant 'Adolfo di Osnabruck

“No, No! I was named after Adolphe Menjou,”

I objected, knowing better in either format.

Adolphe Menjou

There was only one man with that name,

And it was Hitler’s—a real devil;

While he bears the name of a Saint,

I live with that name every minute of my life,

Happy to know:

Every human being is basically good.

No wonder my American friends called me Al.

All of us evolve according to a plan

That reveals itself as we become what we are;

And,

Regardless of whether we are men or women,

We can only comply with a single destiny:

On one hand,

Hitler was the worst example next to the devil;

On the other,

An infinite number of human beings

Regenerate themselves,

Every single one for the good of all.

On calling me Al,

My friends gave me a passport to: We, the people,

(As explained by Dr. King)

To a place in time wherein we develop from within

And not from frameworks

Of some saint, or, worse: the devil himself.

Now, more than ever,

With the celebration of my eighty-fourth,

I have become better aware

Of having fulfilled the attributes

Which have shaped me

Into the A D O L F O

That I am,

For whom

I proudly make this claim.

*

English Translation
What a wonderful thing a sunny day
The serene air after a thunderstorm
The fresh air, and a party is already going on…
What a wonderful thing a sunny day.

But another sun,
that’s brighter still
It’s my own sun
that’s in your face!
The sun, my own sun
It’s in your face!
It’s in your face!

When night comes and the sun has gone down,
I start feeling blue;
I’d stay below your window
When night comes and the sun has gone down.

But another sun,

that’s brighter still

It’s my own sun

that’s in your face!

The sun, my own sun

It’s in your face!

It’s in your face!

Dear Adolfo, you, my friend, could never be considered named after Hitler! And, I find, you are not an Al to me since Adolfo does indeed seem just right...

May each day continue to fulfill your destiny as Adolfo Caso, poet, photographer, author, publisher...and friend...