You Begin
by Margaret Atwood
You begin this way:
this is your hand,
this is your eye,
that is a fish, blue and flat
on the paper, almost
the shape of an eye.
This is your mouth, this is an O
or a moon, whichever
you like. This is yellow.
Outside the window
is the rain, green
because it is summer, and beyond that
the trees and then the world,
which is round and has only
the colors of these nine crayons.
This is the world, which is fuller
and more difficult to learn than I have said.
You are right to smudge it that way
with the red and then
the orange: the world burns.
You can read the rest of the poem here.
Here is the wedding poem that I wrote:
Wedding Poem for Sara & Jerry
(Inspired by Margaret Atwood’s poem “You Begin”)
by Mom
We begin this way:
this is my hand—
take it in yours,
hold on to it tightly.
Now we are one.
Here is my heart.
It holds rivers of love
that will flow to you freely
this day…and forever.
Outside the church window
summer awaits
with songbirds and sunlight
and shade trees to cool us
when days get too hot.
This is our world—
our family and friends
who know us and love us.
They’re smiling and happy
on our wedding day.
Now we are married…
we’re husband and wife—
we are partners for life.
We will share all our days,
all our sorrows and tears
all our laughter and triumphs
throughout the years.
This is my hand, this is my heart,
this is our world,
ahead is our future
filled with surprises
that we can’t imagine.
It all begins here
with our family and friends
with our promises…vows…
with the taking of hands
and the binding of hearts.
We begin and we end:
Here is my heart.
It holds rivers of love
that will flow to you freely.
This is my hand—
take it in yours,
hold on to it tightly
this day…and forever.
Now we are one.
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At Wild Rose Reader, I have an originalmemoir poem titled Backyard Mermaids.
The Poetry Friday Roundup is over at Book Aunt this week.
