Especially privileged was I, when Paula and Mark asked if I would write a poem to be read at the wedding. Which is a beautiful opportunity to put down in words some of what the goodness of marriage and choosing someone who you can build a life with, can be.

The image of a garden seems appropriate – we don’t marry because we’ve discovered something beautiful, but because we want to create something beautiful. So this is the poem that I wrote and read for my darling friends.

A Garden.

Today, my love – I am giving you a meadow.A meadow is a wonderful place to begin something new.We have seen this full run of seasons;summer, autumn, winter and springpassed over in each other’s eyes, held hand in handI know what seasons look like on your faceI am comforted, I am hopeful, I am sure.So now in this summer, I give you a meadowfull of wildflower, full of promiseso we may begin in earnest.Let me tell you – how I want to build you a garden here,A corner devoted to each season –There daffodils in spring, here falling leaves for autumnFrom an oak tree that bends but cannot break in winter storms.And every year, roses in summerBlooming over and over, recounting the fragranceby which I loved you first, and love you now.I long to see the trees grow older and take their shapeAgainst the prevailing wind provide some shelterFor each sacred herb and flower, that may feed usAnd to sit at the end of day beside you, always beside you.Let us be entwined together, anchored securely in this earthNever one removed from the other,each bringing life to the other.Today I am giving you a meadow,Tomorrow I am making you a garden.

On sharing a poem that has been shared with the world

This poem will always be Mark and Paula’s but I share it gladly, as do they. The only request is that you let me know so I can share in the joy of knowing how these words spread love and joy.

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