Wife Rule #100: Better Late Than Never

Mere prose often seems inadequate to express the highest, most noble feelings of love that a man feels for his wife; this is why store shelves are chock-full of mushy, rose-laden love cards this time of year. So several weeks before Valentine's Day, I started a series of four short, related poems in an attempt to convey to my wife how she has blessed my life and what I anticipate our future to be--a sort of metaphor of our intertwined lives.

Well, attempting to write a poem about feelings that run so deep, and are so primary to my life that they are hard to communicate anyway, takes some time. Certainly more time and effort than the sort of silly stuff I usually write. Thus, Valentine's Day came and went without the completion of my thoughts.

So here, nearly two weeks overdue, are your poems, honey. Better late than never.


Dawn

Pale cobalt sky of wintry air
dissolves in a halo of pure gold
ascending the horizon; fair
rays of warmth pierce stony cold.
You are here
                               infusing light,
awaking dormant memory.
Rising currents aid to flight
lifting solitude to harmony.


Noon

Brilliant, ever-strengthening hues;
shapes cast into stark relief;
heat beats down as shadows fuse
to earth beneath our aching feet.
You are here
                               breathing life.
All nature toils with might and joy
with daylight full, with ardor rife
to live, their fruitful powers employ.


Dusk

Softly, softly sinks the warmth;
Shadows stretched, distended reach,
reverting back to softening forms
as contrast fades with whispered speech.
You are here
                               in deepening sky.
Nostalgia's glow dims into grey.
Dreams remembered, dreams that died
anticipate a distant day.


Next

New paths, new flight, new starry fields;
unopened channels freed from chains
their application now to yield
new wonders in such lofty planes.
You are here:
                               Eternal flames
together kindled, borne to bear
life and light and love that claims
all Complete, Unending, and Most Fair.