Decennial

To think we never used to notice it,

Enduring just a day upon the pile.

Not special, never such a perfect fit,

You’d never guess we’d wear it down the aisle.

Each growing year has long expected this,

A daffodil, a diamond furled in tin.

Received with all the care of a first kiss,

So as to keep the secret genius in.

My words have worked at time, have worked at play,

At times I’ve torn our wings apart like crêpe,

Took matches, sulphur. Fire and brimstone days,

& then, an easy joy is given shape:

For when these creatures wake; a call to light

Invokes the year, drives off another night.

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This poem is for Mat and Fi on their 10th wedding anniversary. They are wonderful friends: I hope they like it. This poem is also an acrostic, because I really love acrostics.

I wrote a sonnet for this poem, because anniversaries demand sonnets. A sonnet is 14 lines long, with ABAB/CDCD/EFEF/GG rhyme structure, also it is in iambic pentameter - five feet per line.

I write most of my poetry by hand, because I am all sorts of places - trains/bars/walking - when I write it. So the photo at the end is my draft of this poem. It's a bit crumply, because I had to shove it into my bag when I ran for the train. But, you can see the process, a bit? I set my acrostic and wrote my last two lines on the computer at work. I always write the last lines first, then write the rest of the poem (with mad crossing-out and editing), then hate the last lines, erase them, then write them again really fast.

And, as if you didn't need MORE explanations - a daffodil is the flower of the 10-year anniversary, and tin is the gift of the 10-year anniversary, and the 'modern' symbol of a 10-year anniversary is a diamond.

So please, read down the side and wish Mat and Fi a very glorious, very genius, very everything 10 year wedding anniversary.

Much love, and wishes for a happy day and year ahead,

xx A