Let's make this birthday one to remember.

85 years old (Born on May 31, 1939)

Happy Birthday, Al Young! Poet Laureate extraordinaire and maestro of musical memoirs—your words dance smoother than jazz on a Saturday night. From "The Sound of Dreams Remembered" to the soulful rhythms in "Bodies and Soul," you've shown us poetry can groove as effortlessly as Miles Davis hitting that perfect note.

Winning two American Book Awards wasn't enough; you had to go ahead and become California's poetic ambassador too! Clearly, your verses age like fine wine—or perhaps more fittingly—a timeless blues melody. Here's wishing another year filled with laughter, inspiration, good music—and poems so cool they wear sunglasses indoors.