A Blessing of Sorts
For V&K on their wedding

Let it all stop for a day,
the traffic and the argument,
the work grind and the government,
the promises daily betrayed,

the births, the deaths, the growing old,
the hating, killing, blaming – yes,
all loss, all grief, all loneliness:
let the whole show be put on hold.

Let there be silence, let thought be still,
let the world pause, let there be peace
on however temporary a lease,
as though we’d stepped off time’s treadmill.

Let there be just this here and now,
the two of you, and in this place
the fickle, momentary grace
which is all our destinies allow

but which translates each solitary
stumbling individual
through a clumsy ritual
through your union’s poetry

into a statement we dare to hope
will stay true at the deepest level
the brutal years will not unravel:
that in commitment lies the scope

to find your best self in the other,
to know that when you drift apart
you fail yourself; that today you start
the dangerous, radiant endeavour

to build a life more than the sum
of what each would have been alone,
so as you leave your comfort zone
we bless what you can now become

while knowing that it’s also true
there’s a challenge in your happiness
to all of us, as we assess
whether we’re willing to renew

our own search for that high, hard way
your love has signposted today.

Tom Vaughan

If you have any thoughts on this poem,  Tom Vaughan would be pleased to hear them.