Happy Birthday: 16 poems for the birthday card

The poems below are written by us. You can use them as they are, change them, or pick a single line — no source reference needed.

The reason we write our own is that the most searched birthday poems in Norway are still copyright protected. Protection lasts 70 years after the author’s death, and most websites that reproduce such poems do so without permission.

For colleagues, neighbors and people you know a bit.

1. 1

   Happy birthday! May the cake be good, the coffee warm, and your phone full of people who love you.

2. 2

   Another year behind you, and you wear it well. Happy birthday — we'll take the rest as it comes.

3. 3

   Today you shouldn't do anything useful. That's the whole point. Congratulations!

4. 4

   Hip hip hooray for you who's turning, for you who laughs and you who gives. May the day be as lovely as you make others' days.

5. 5

   Happy birthday to you. The world is a little better with you in it. That's not just empty words.

The birthday is one of the few occasions where it’s perfectly fine to say outright what someone means. Use it.

1. 1

   It's easy to say 'congratulations'. It's harder to say how much you mean. So I'll just write it: very much.

2. 2

   You're the one I call when something goes wrong, and the one I call when something finally goes right.

3. 3

   Some people make things easier just by being there. You're one of them. Thanks for that — and happy birthday.

4. 4

   Another year with you in my life. Actually, I'm the one who should get a gift. Happy birthday.

1. 1

   Happy birthday! You're not older. You're just more experienced at finding your glasses.

2. 2

   Another year without serious incidents. Well done. Congratulations!

3. 3

   Today you can eat cake for breakfast and call it tradition. Use the privilege. Happy birthday!

4. 4

   Age is just a number. Admittedly a number that grows alarmingly fast. Congratulations anyway!

50, 60 and 70. Round-number birthdays can take more seriousness than regular birthdays, and people remember what was said.

1. 1

   Fifty years, and still the funniest in the room. Half the race is done — and you're leading.

2. 2

   Sixty years of experience, and still curious about things you don't know. That's not a given. Congratulations.

3. 3

   Seventy years is a long time to be a good person. Thank you for being that all the way through.

• Start concrete. A habit, a phrase, something the person achieved in the past year.
• Short lines. Break where you would take a breath if reading aloud.
• Don’t force rhymes. A half-baked rhyme ruins a good sentence.
• Read it out loud. You hear the rhythm immediately. You don’t see it.

30 birthday greetings in prose are in birthday greetings. If you’re going to a confirmation or wedding, there are similar poems in poems for the confirmand and poems for the bridal couple.