Togetherness (for Sian & Tom)

(illustration by Oliver Day)

Write me a poem about being together…

One wonders where to rhyme it with weather
Or whether to say
‘Weathering the storms‘ altogether

Yet like relationships
The best lines of a poem
Are not made to be a perfect fit

In poetry & life we must aim
For a richer deeper vein
And always try to ascertain
The hidden rhythm and rhyme
That connects our lives

Ladies & gentleman
We are gathered here to day to see
A brave and almost foolhardy thing
Two people’s lives have intersected such
That they are willing to try
To complete the imperfect circle

From time to time
They may see eye to eye
On this or that

Yet to uncover the meaning of today
They here agree
To agree to disagree
In the long intervals in between

I have heard said, and read,
That love is like two trees
Intermingling to become one

That type of poem may do
For the feeble and the young

It appears to me that love
Is much stronger than that
For what tree ever argued with itself?

A better image to imagine would be
Two trees in an orchard contentedly
Separate in space and in time
And knowing they can never be
As one

Leaves fall and summers breeze
The rain & wind
Shakes the boughs
& the trees stay rooted & strong
Gazing at each other through the years
Until at last one winter too many falls

One might say
How sad to be a tree
Condemned to be alone.
But we should say happy trees!

You shared so much together
And knew each other better
Than you knew yourselves

It is the space between us
That defines us & our love for each other
The space we allow each other
To breathe & grow

So if you must spend your lives
Trying to be together
Remember

The test is not how close you are
But how you live with
The distance between you

May you spend your
Lives exploring and guarding
The space around you

`Who knows what may grow
in the ground between?’

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