The love we share is deeply treasured. Now

As ever, I discover new and deep

Connections. Years don’t diminish the vow

I made to honor you. I try to keep

Finding new and different ways to tell

You how much love I have to share with you.

The effortless grace you exude, the well

Of deep kindness and caring are the glue

That holds this ship together as our lives,

Complicated and challenging, sail through

These difficult times—more than that—survive,

As anxiety swirls around us. You

Make me a better man, this much I know.

I’m grateful that you’re here, to help me grow.

Faces of stone, a village underground,

Community of heroes, every one

With a hard-earned tale. When no one is around

They keep a silent vigil ‘till the sun

Comes round again to warm the earth above

Their resting place. They left a legacy

For us the living, with unfading love

For their time with us. With eyes closed we see

Their spectre dancing through our consciousness,

To conjure valiant acts. We shan’t pretend

Their sacrifice to make a hard world less

Troubled didn’t forestall a violent end.

In their brave service we must seek release 

From lasting grief and find a place of peace. 

In private moments, I still can’t believe
I get to spend all my moments with you,
That the ground I walk, the air that I breathe
Are shared in these precious moments with you.
In rhymes I’ve written quite often a phrase
Informs everything I feel about you
But I never imagined in those days
That the wish in my feelings would come true
In dreams I have had, you inhabit me
In ways no one ever before could touch.
And still after all these years I can see
How fortunate that you love me this much.
As I reflect on where you and I are,
It staggers me that we have come this far.

The morning sky in purples, pinks, and blues

Arrests my soul and holds it captive here

Above the marsh as daybreak’s shocking hues

Announce the day. The sights and sounds so clear

And clean, Beneath my feet, in sulfurous muck,

Where slack tide gives the ever-clacking rail,

Where creatures scurry, where a lonesome duck

Glides in and out, foraging. Where a pale

Young gull learns the lessons the marsh has taught

Generations of its kind. Swallows dart

In and out, up and down, until they’ve caught

Their fill, then by my side one preens. It’s art

Alive in front of me. Another day

On the salt marsh breaks. It is nature’s way.

As days go by, as years go by, it seems

That love grows larger, stronger, more intense.

Around my head the aura daily teems

With waves of affection. The heightened sense

Of contentment and happiness abound

Because the love that fills my swelling heart

Defies all explanation. Just the sound

Of your voice inspires, awakens that part

Of me that only you can touch. I can

But only hope to make you see and feel

The reflection of your goodness. What man

Can do I vow to daily make a real,

Focused effort. I’m proud that you are mine,

I give you back my heart, My Valentine.

Big, bright, wide eyes. These are the future kings

And queens of the universe, if they choose

To exercise the power learning brings

To bear. To find a way to make great use

Of all the information set before

Those wide, bright eyes. There is no way to stop

A motivated climber yearning for

A way upward, to reach the mountaintop

Of his—or her— personal realm. They’ll learn

That the only obstacle is the one

They think they can’t overcome. But to earn

That hard-fought prize, to know that they have won

All they desire, they will have to believe

That they can. Only then will they achieve.

I cannot know what it means to be Black

In America. Neither can I know

What it means to be a woman. See, back

In my youth I learned what it meant to go

Anonymous amid oppression. It’s

A simple thing to disappear when life

Presents barriers to those whose bits

Of DNA condemn them to the strife

Of standing out. My ease at who I am

Informs an entitlement that I bear

Uneasily. Naive, I smiling ran

Like a cretin, a rube, without the fear

About which others prayed. But now it’s plain…

A white man cannot understand their pain.

We walked together, not yet hand in hand

Along the boards, along the ocean’s edge.

A needed friendship, footprints in the sand,

But long before we knew there’d be a pledge

Of love, of honor, faithfulness, and troth.

We opened up deep wounds of recent pain,

We shared some hidden secrets that we both

Had long vowed not to share. Time and again

On early summer morning walks we spoke

Of things that mattered, of things that did not,

But care was always taken ‘til we broke

Through to a deeper, inner tight-wound knot

That, when untied, revealed the empty holes

That love would fill, and thus unite two souls.

You came to me when I was upside down,

When smart and kind and calm were just the salve

To soothe and smooth, to see beyond the frown,

To give to me the gift I had to have.

I came to you, a crossroad up ahead,

Two paths: escape from entropy to plot

A way forward with a plan; or to tread

Still water ‘til a lifeline showed its knot.

We came together in a time of need

Unknown. Two separate souls searching to find

What we didn’t know we wanted. A seed

Took hold, a buried golden vein was mined.

Now twenty-five years on, I still believe 

You are, as then, the reason that I breathe

In times of crisis one cool head prevails;

In times of plenty pragmatism rules.

She will not be seen going off the rails,

Neither will she be seen all draped in jewels.

With strength of character, driven by love;

Driven by right and wrong; driven by need

To protect; driven by something to prove;

She’ll get to understanding; at great speed,

To clarity. Her world demands a force

That pushes through difficulty with smart—

And kind—choices and actions. They’re the source

Of all her wisdom, thoughtfulness, and heart.

No one should doubt she’s ready to fulfill

Her goals, if only by her depth of will.