Rhymes and Threads

I wrote this poem based on words that I spoke at my husband’s Celebration of Life. We were together for over thirty years and much of my life was built in partnership with him. No single poem could include all the intricacies of that experience, but here is a start.

Rhymes and Threads

I did not write you poems

But for the one we wrote together

Feeling for the rhythm of shared days

Listening to the rhymes of all the years

I never saw the tapestry we wove –

Too close to see the pattern of the threads

Though the loom groaned with its weight

And together we were something more

I would not sing it differently

The song of our joined voices

Nor change the melody or notes

Though some we thought discordant

Now that the rhyme is lost

And the tapestry is missing half its threads

And the song is a reedy solo

I remember we changed the world together

I will not say goodbye, Love

I will listen with my inmost hearing

And watch for you with eyelids closed

And know in my deepest knowing

That you are with me still