Wedding Anniversary Poems

On A Wedding Anniversary
The sky is torn across
This ragged anniversary of two
Who moved for three years in tune
Down the long walks of their vows.

Now their love lies a loss
And Love and his patients roar on a chain;
From every tune or crater
Carrying cloud, Death strikes their house.

Too late in the wrong rain
They come together whom their love parted:
The windows pour into their heart
And the doors burn in their brain.

First Anniversary
First anniversaries replay the tune,
Instigating music yet unheard,
Reminiscences without a word,
Salient as the dark side of the moon.

Then sing with joy the old, familiar song
And listen for the notes you cannot hear,
Notes that play but to the inner ear,
Nor more nor less the love for which you long.

In silence underneath your celebration,
Vivid lies the truth of which you sing,
Exact as ice, radiant as summer,
Rich and spare, bountiful and pure.

So will you sense this sense without sensation
As you let the bells of glory ring,
Rejoicing to the rhythm of time's drummer,
Yet yearning still for what you have, and sure.

When You Are Old
When you are old and gray and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true;
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face.
And bending down beside the glowing bars
Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

Fulfillment
There is no happier life
But in a wife;
The comforts are so sweet
Whe two do meet.

'Tis plenty, peace, a calm
Like dropping balm;
Love's weather is so fair,
Like perfumed air.

Each word such pleasure brings
Like soft-touched stirrings;
Love's passion moves the heart
On either part;
Such harmony together,
So pleased in either.

No discords; concords still;
Sealed with one will.
By love, God made man one,
Yet not alone.

Like stamps of king and queen
It may be seen:
Two figures on one coin,
So do they join,
Only they not embrace.
We, face to face.