Vincent Lowry's Blog - Posts Tagged "sparklers-in-virginia"
Sparklers in Virginia
If only these rose petals down
this aisle weren't so far away.
If only this love sealed before us
on an impossibly green hill
promised the blossoming of something vernal and unpredictable for all hearts seeking to fly.
A gray Virginian sky looks down
on children transfixed by a fountain's magic.
Photographers surround the jocular youth, freezing the moment for a
time when the day is a book of
memories.
Night falls.
Music fills the reception
as candles flicker off faces
not seen in seasons.
A toddler finds his way to the
dance floor, breaking the ice for the adults who aren't as brave
with their feet and hips.
Soon moves without a name
pour from bodies without a care,
releasing the worries of yesterday and tomorrow.
Sparks from sparklers rain down on the bride and groom as they duck and thread between family and friends.
A new love soars off into the evening.
I think the fallen soldiers of Gettysburg, buried just hours from this hill, fought for a peace like this.
I think their valiant hearts during the darkest final hours wanted to fly
in this sort of grand freedom.
I think they would have loved to see their children play in that fountain, or tested their shoes on that dance floor, or held that raining firework high for their newly married hosts.
And there's no doubt Lincoln would have held the sparkler too.
Perhaps he would have lifted it higher than the rest of us given his height advantage and the grand triumph of the dream now realized before his eyes: a simple wedding in a state at truce,
a snapshot of a democracy with a new birth of freedom many generations in the making.
We are the result of their struggle,
of their vision of an America rededicated to its original promise.
If love is the greatest power,
then a moment committed to it seems the finest example of their honorable lives and what they created for ours.
We invite them to have a look at the beauty they forged.
We request their presence at our
sacred gathering made possible
by their sacrifice.
Let the lights we hold together
never extinguish,
shining the path of rebirth for a union made whole.
(c) 2014 by Vincent Lowry
this aisle weren't so far away.
If only this love sealed before us
on an impossibly green hill
promised the blossoming of something vernal and unpredictable for all hearts seeking to fly.
A gray Virginian sky looks down
on children transfixed by a fountain's magic.
Photographers surround the jocular youth, freezing the moment for a
time when the day is a book of
memories.
Night falls.
Music fills the reception
as candles flicker off faces
not seen in seasons.
A toddler finds his way to the
dance floor, breaking the ice for the adults who aren't as brave
with their feet and hips.
Soon moves without a name
pour from bodies without a care,
releasing the worries of yesterday and tomorrow.
Sparks from sparklers rain down on the bride and groom as they duck and thread between family and friends.
A new love soars off into the evening.
I think the fallen soldiers of Gettysburg, buried just hours from this hill, fought for a peace like this.
I think their valiant hearts during the darkest final hours wanted to fly
in this sort of grand freedom.
I think they would have loved to see their children play in that fountain, or tested their shoes on that dance floor, or held that raining firework high for their newly married hosts.
And there's no doubt Lincoln would have held the sparkler too.
Perhaps he would have lifted it higher than the rest of us given his height advantage and the grand triumph of the dream now realized before his eyes: a simple wedding in a state at truce,
a snapshot of a democracy with a new birth of freedom many generations in the making.
We are the result of their struggle,
of their vision of an America rededicated to its original promise.
If love is the greatest power,
then a moment committed to it seems the finest example of their honorable lives and what they created for ours.
We invite them to have a look at the beauty they forged.
We request their presence at our
sacred gathering made possible
by their sacrifice.
Let the lights we hold together
never extinguish,
shining the path of rebirth for a union made whole.
(c) 2014 by Vincent Lowry
