Happy Birthday JKR and Harry (The 3rd Annual HP Birthday Post)

For the past two years, I've posted a poem or essay in honor of Harry Potter's birthday, which also happens to be the birthday of his author, JK Rowling. Last year I decided to make it an annual tradition, so here I am again to hum a few bars of "Happy Birthday to you" and hoist an imaginary slab of smushed chocolate cake (from Hagrid's pocket!) in honor of the day.

By creative reckoning, we know that today would be Harry's 30th birthday -- a milestone birthday indeed, and one that I'm sure causes him to reflect and look back on many birthdays past.

I've had the saints who have gone before on my mind lately, as you can probably tell from yesterday's posting. One of the most powerful elements of the Harry Potter series is how Rowling depicts Harry's departed loved ones and how they help Harry in times of deep need. So for this year, I decided to pull out a poem I wrote about Harry's mother Lily.

*****

Lovely Lily, always smiling,
always winning, always shining,
lovely Lily, prettiest sister,
stubborn friend, staunch resister.
Not easy to sway, no simple romantic,
but once she loves, that love’s titanic.

Lovely Lily, precious wife,
still young mother, willing to give
herself for others, courage blazing,
voice beseeching, green eyes gazing.
Last moments spent with arms spread wide,
protector with nowhere to hide.

Lovely Lily, lioness
protecting cub in deep distress,
now forever memory, voice,
mirror image, finest choice,
shade who comforts, fortress strong,
the one to which he still belongs.

Lovely Lily, look down and see
the lion your cub has grown to be.

~EMP

Many happy returns Harry! And Jo too!