Today’s poem is The New Marriage by Elizabeth Garber. She is the author of three books of poetry about life in Maine. Her next book, Memoir of an Architect’s Daughter, will be published this June.
Elizabeth was a single mom of two teenagers when she wrote the poem. She writes, “A friend loaned me her country retreat space for a weekend for uninterrupted writing time. While there I wondered, what if I'm going to be single for the next ten years? The poem reveals a moment of insight. A voice in my head said, stop worrying about a relationship and devote yourself to writing! Which I did. I wrote three books. And then I got married.”
The New Marriage
by Elizabeth W. Garber
Years ago, my friend planted a line of pines along the meadow’s edge
so that when her daughter married in the full lushness of August
she would walk through an avenue swept with bouquets of white pine boughs
before entering the circle of stones.
Today my snowshoes barely etch the snow.
I take this private avenue as my entryway as well,
accompanied by the unwavering deep tracks of a deer
who traveled this way another day.
Maybe this was my husband I was supposed to meet,
and we’ve missed each other.
Or maybe this is the new marriage,
entering the circle in the peach light
of a late winter morning
in a day of my own making.
Poem copyright © 2005 Elizabeth Garber. Reprinted from Listening Inside the Dance: A Life in Maine Infused with Tango, The Illuminated Sea Press, 2005, by permission of Elizabeth W. Garber.