Let's make this birthday one to remember.

81 years old (Born on December 08, 1943)

Happy Birthday, James Tate! Celebrating you today is easier than deciphering one of your delightfully surreal poems. From the Pulitzer Prize-winning brilliance of your "Selected Poems" to the whimsical mastery in "Worshipful Company of Fletchers," you've given us countless reasons to smile—and scratch our heads—in poetic wonder.

May this birthday be as timeless and amusing as your verses, filled with unexpected joys and quirky surprises. Here's hoping that life's absurdities continue inspiring you—after all, nobody captures life's delightful oddities quite like you do. Cheers to another year of poetic mischief and literary triumphs!