redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till i die

Here's a poem for today. It seems appropriate.

Can't you see?--it's not just about them, or only about romantic love. It's about all of us. About the miracle that holds our hearts together and keeps us from being alone in a crowded world.

For Jason & Erin

I have searched high & low for the perfect poem
to mark the wonder of today.
That in a world where moth & rust destroy
and we forget our neighbor's name --
this tall, fine boy, all heart and long long limbs
found this golden girl who moves through the
days with the lilac poise of a summer night.

Oh, there are plenty of poems spilling over with
impassioned fervor -- Let me count the ways,
my soul takes flight at your touch, and so on.
But they all lack the composed conviction of
seven swans, the flinty sweet of iron mixed with wine.

Then there are the poems full of weary admonisions;
the echo of wailing babies;
the order of operations for turning two into one,
multiplying and then staving off division and undoing.

It is true: Love can tear us apart.
There are things we know and
things we should not hope to know.
His handwriting on the paper could destroy you
but her voice in from the garden will raise your
heart from the dust.

Somewhere, I'd like to think, the perfect poem exists.
The poem to draw this pool of joy from our hearts and
play it into words strong enough to hold the hope
of this marriage.

Perhaps this poem sits in a book, high on a shelf
in a fire-lit room, where an old old man with an
overgrown heart takes the hand of his golden wife
and together, bow their heads, thanking the Creator
of the Universe for the privellege of witnessing one
another's life and the joy of sharing the elegance
of ordinary days.