![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
friday feast: still crazy (about each other) after all these years
mood: 
happy
happy"There is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies, and delighting their friends." ~ Homer
Happy Poetry Friday!
I've definitely got marriage on the brain this week, celebrating our 30th anniversary and recounting the lovely wedding we attended in New Hampshire recently.
"The First Marriage," by Peter Meinke, made me think of Brad and Ashley, barely married two weeks, embarking on a new life together, their vows still fresh upon their lips.
Have you ever wondered who the very first couple was, in the history of mankind, to exchange formal vows? We'll probably never know, but isn't it awesome that the intensity of human love at one point in time begged for witness, confirmation, and declaration? And that this same intensity is felt by every couple on their wedding day?
The first time you get married, you feel like the first couple who ever got married . . .
THE FIRST MARRIAGE
by Peter Meinke
Brad and Ashley on top of the world.
imagine the very first marriage a girl
and boy trembling with some inchoate
need for ceremony a desire for witness:
inventing formality like a wheel or a hoe
in a lost language in a clearing too far from here
(Rest is here.)
Fast forward 30 years to Len and me. I found a poem for us, too. It's all about assumptions and expectations, and how if you can work through those, you stand a good chance of making it.
I think when Len married me, he hoped for an athletic, outgoing, bestselling writer who would buy him a Ferrari and enable him to retire by age 35 (he has emphatically stated on many occasions that he has absolutely no problem being a kept man).
And when I married Len, I assumed that he would, 1) find everything I wrote or said acutely fascinating, 2) love shopping, and 3) be overtly romantic like my favorite actors in the movies.
Oh, well. How wrong we both were, but here we are today, still together, an unlikely pair of soulmates. I truly believe fate brought us together.
I MARRIED YOU
by Linda Pastan
Celebrating our 30th the other night.
I married you
for all the wrong reasons,
charmed by your
dangerous family history,
by the innocent muscles, bulging
like hidden weapons
under your shirt,
by your naive ties, the colors
of painted scraps of sunset.
(Rest is here.)
*BTW, we celebrated with dinner at L'Auberge Chez Francois, in Great Falls, Virginia. Every morsel was pure poetry, I tell you -- from the Plats de Jambons appetizer to the Alsatian plum tart for dessert. L'Auberge has been a Washington, D.C., area favorite for half a century, and rightfully so. No one holds a candle to them for service, atmosphere, quality of ingredients, and attention to detail.
The secret to their success can be found in the words of Chef de Cuisine Haeringer: "Love begins in the kitchen."
L'Auberge is a French Alsatian Country Inn.
My appetizer: Serrano, parma, and Bayonne ham with fresh fruit.
Today's Poetry Friday hostess is the lovely Elaine Magliaro, of Wild Rose Reader. Be sure to stop in for a brimming buffet of tantalizing poetry!
**Don't forget: You have until midnight tonight (EST) to enter my 30th Anniversary Contest. Just guess our special song for a chance to win a $30 Amazon gift card. Details here.
But I have to point out, somewhat reluctantly, that Peter Meinke's The First Marriage would be historically incorrect. The concept of romantic love being the basis of marriage only became popular during the nineteenth century. Before that it was more of a business deal, a merging of families and property. People fell in love, but they didn't usually marry for that reason.
Were Adam and Eve "married?"
ain'tmarriage grand?
Re: ain'tmarriage grand?
Pastan's poem is my favorite of the two. Wonderful.
(Anonymous)
I'm getting caught up on all the posts I missed. Sigh....but having fun doing so.
Jules, 7-Imp
Doesn't this just sum up every good marriage you know?
How wrong we both were
about each other,
and how happy we have been.
My husband was in Atlanta this weekend to attend his niece's wedding. She's the first of many nieces and nephews to marry, and I guess there will be lots of fun wedding trips in the coming years!