Our First

In honor of Elly's and my first wedding anniversary (the second time around), here is the poem I wrote and read to her on the big day:

SILENCE

I

There are these doorways…

Some evenings – like this one –

Snow falling gently, Juncos and Sparrows

Hopping for seeds in the snow,

Not making even the slightest sound,

Even my breath just happens. Just happens.

And suddenly, with no warning, Silence

Is all that is.

Great draughts of silence

Simply here for the taking.

Our love is like that,

Yours and mine.

II

Struggling behind you, to keep up,

Walking – almost running –

Joints aching, yet exhilarated,

Wondering just how far you would take us

Toward that distant point – Point Joe,

Off in the distant Pacific twilight,

A dark, silent shade of a place.

You took us all the way, and I followed.

Why?

Was it the path to the essence of you,

To the essence of our unexpected sharing?

I could not stop, and I nearly collapsed

On the way back.

I thought I might die,

And I had to call to you.

All those years between

(You know what I mean!)

Were somehow like that darkened path,

Except in the true blackness

Of watchful ignorance,

Putting one foot in front of the other

For what seemed like eons and eons,

Until one day, I just

Had to call to you.

III

Doesn’t it seem odd,

How Silence can be like a

Beautiful song sung deep in the soul?

And isn’t it miraculous,

How sometimes, with a little luck,

Two can sing it together?

I just shake my head in wonder,

On this beautiful snowy twilit eve,

To think that, after all these years,

The secret hope I carried, only dimly aware,

Became our destiny,

The two of us, at last,

Singing our silence as one.