A Poem For Jon and Mary (on their wedding)

I was happy to accept my sister, Mary's, invitation to speak some words at the ceremony of her wedding. In thinking about her invitation to me, and trust in me, I realized I had nothing to say that wouldn't be best expressed in poetry. This poem developed from my assumptions about the universal desire in all of us to be complimented fully in the person of another.

Jon and Mary's Town

With the cool light of many moons,

In time you'd come to know,

That the warm faith that you'd had in hope

Might sometimes up and go.

So, in the shadows of the circumstances

Where once you'd smiled and said,

"Hello my lover and my friend,"

At least to them,

You would never once again.

And in times like that to say the truth

Is simple pain,

On top of lonliness, loss and simply

Missing what you'd had.

So in times like that your aching heart complains,

"Do even you, my owner, have no hope for bliss?

When once again I may beat strong and fast.

Have you so soon forgotten--- what I'm broken for,

Or, do you certify today, to never once repeat the past.

And live alone and broken, on your knees upon the floor.

This solitude, standing in your bolted door."

And yet...

It was the cool light of many moons,

That caused two to disagree,

With the fear that's whispered in the ears of all

In misery.

Not some sweet romantic harmony,

That sounds as good as a happy end,

But the choice to put behind you,

What you'll never do again.

And now the people who had watched so sad

While two strangers lived in pain,

Have gathered in a moonlit town

To see what for they prayed.

For the strangers have now found themselves

The benefit of light,

In the eyes of one another... what

They'd so long been denied.

I'm just another one amongst these friends,

Who cannot help but pray;

That the paths between these families

Continue long and stay.

And that the certitude that soon infects the hopeless

Still around,

Has the fine example of this day,

In Jon and Mary's town.

Andy Coffey,

for Mary and Jon on August Seventh, 2009

(and Elias and Ella)