Tag: My Daughter’s Wedding

On My Daughter’s Wedding Day (4)

On By Beleaguered ServantIn Original Poems14 Comments

Sometimes I write about actual events and people I know; sometimes I write fiction. The poems in this series are about actual family events.

(Part I)

(Part II)

(Part III)

True Story 4

Part IV – A Toast

Hold fast, no matter what else you may do
To what you know is right, and to each other:
And may this day bestow new lives to you,
The lives of husband, wife – (father or mother?)

Let mutual respect provide the floor
Let love be walls your true hopes to contain;
Let openness between you be a door
Let kindness be a roof to block the rain

May love be patient, as it always should
Do not compete – you are on the same team –
Do each no harm, and where you can, do good:
Together, help to reach what each can dream.

Never forget the vows you made this day.
Always recall, all power’s from Above –
And that a marriage only finds its way
By honor,

Truth,

And faith

And hope

And love

On My Daughter’s Wedding Day (3)

On By Beleaguered ServantIn Original Poems7 Comments

Sometimes I write about actual events and people I know; sometimes I write fiction. The poems in this series are about actual family events.

(Part I)

(Part II)

True Story 3

Part III

My wife was helping our daughter
Move into a new house
A neighborhood man walked by
Who introduced himself
And offered to help

And now
Fifteen months later
He stands ready to watch her walk down an aisle

He, too, a brave soldier
Soon to be in the same Afghanistan

A man whose father and mother traveled from India
To the Caribbean island where their first son was born
To Brooklyn where he was raised

And he, so full of life and purpose
A joy-spreader, a friend to all he meets
So full of love for my stepdaughter

And she for him

And when the organ music starts playing
It is me playing it
As her actual father walks her in
And for the first time in my life

I am crying at a wedding

Really, really crying

For

So

Many

Reasons

(Part IV)

On My Daughter’s Wedding Day (2)

On By Beleaguered ServantIn Original Poems6 Comments

Sometimes I write about actual events and people I know; sometimes I write fiction. The poems in this series are about actual family events.

Wedding Day (2)

(Part I)

Part II

Where does one go
When everything one loved is lost?

Where does one find strength
When chaos and pain and death sets in?

How young is too young
To know that everything and
Everyone we love
Can be ripped away
Forever?

For her –
Too young
But somehow
Through sorrow that poured down
Day and night like
A long monsoon
She kept going

Finally leaving the house
Of their memories
The pictures
The shoes
The clothes
That once belonged to men
Never again to walk this earth

And she walks the busy floors of work
And the silent halls of a soon-to-be-empty house
Knowing only this truth, this moment

But full, somehow
Of belief
That there is light
Somewhere to be found
And that she is still headed towards it

And that no ending to any life
Negates that life’s
Significance

(Part III)

(Part IV)

 

On My Daughter’s Wedding Day (1)

On By Beleaguered ServantIn Original Poems5 Comments

Sometimes I write about actual events and people I know; sometimes I write fiction. The poems in this series are about actual family events.

Darkened ChurchPart I

The truth of my stepdaughter’s life
Is one that’s hard to tell;
For while she lives on Earth
She’s spent a long, long time in hell

From first: a long-time boyfriend
Who became her fiancee;
Then died somewhere near Kandahar
One horrible March day

Her love, a valiant soldier
Gave his all in that war zone;
And left her as a widow
There disconsolate, alone

Till after years, she met someone
She carefully let in;
To soothe her grieving heart
And hoping once more to begin

When this boyfriend – and this is true –
Was roofing at a site
As that old roof collapsed and
He was killed at once, outright

I met her at the hospital
Where countless tears were shed
“Am I just a black widow?”
Was the only thing she said

“No, no, you’re not. You’re not.”
I told her. Wishing, helplessly
That I could lift this nightmare
And somehow could help her see

Beyond the darkened veil
She saw descending, everywhere
To lift her up and help her
With the grief
She had
To bear

(Part II)

(Part III)

(Part IV)