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This is Kinda long but I needed to store it in my files. So here’s an early one for my wife that hangs in our bedroom. I was getting to know her more and more and often I would assume and/or misunderstand her and she often was misunderstood. Being from a different culture often put a disconnect between her and her north american friends. I tried to write about the pain I felt and saw in her at times.
I saw you in the trees today
The weeping winds held your arms at bay
Your limbs which once reached out in love
Were cuffed by rejection’s subtle shove
The same trees cuddled the fields of green
Clothed in blossoms and buds of spring
Lovely pink pastels and fuchsia born
Tender memories of pure love untorn
The heat and dust with summer’s scene
Befall the flowers of love serene
Seasons of warmth both nurture and test
The depths and strength of roots once blest
Colorful leaves you stretched to show
To grasp the needy winds that blow
And how they blew… your leaves did strew
Like teardrops in the gusts they flew
So now you stand with barren bark
Your frame kept still from chilling dark
The frayed twigs have curled in to ask
“Have I summoned my own love to task?”
Has the corridor of sharp wind and rain
Been the source of all your grief and pain
Your tree-top shakes an affirmed negation
From the depths of your trunk rises self-condemnation
Evening gathered a blinding black
While trees began to turn their back
Pinpricks of stars freckled the sky
The little lights welcomed your why
One final stretch of hope
Your lowest limbs attempt to cope
Weary twigs to the heavens reach
Longing to graft the ambivalent breach
Then leaning on the eastern hills
Stares a star whose brightness fills
The forest floor cool with frost
Winter’s edge was all but lost
The rays of hope sent life to your limbs
Its heat and light your sorrow trims
The shadow cast merely reminds
Shades of grace you’re able to find
My branches and leaves have shared the same sun
In your shadows I dance and run
In your leaves wild spectrum I rejoice
Our limbs forever tangled in true love’s voice.
Written for my wife on our 11th anniversary
February 16th 1997
Submitted for One Stop Poetry. A Saturday celebration: Your Past.
Gerald the Writer 
>smiles. i think it is a lovely write jerry…i imagine marriage which is already like learning another language could be quite difficult mixing verious cultures…
>I love how you say you were 'getting to know her' on your 11th anniversary. You are are a wise man, Jerry, and this is a poem that struggles at times but does make it–rhymed quatrains often feel forced, but you've made several of them extremely potent in this. I like '..The frayed twigs have curled in to ask/“Have I summoned my own love to task?”' Your wife's strength (and your love for her) shines through this.
>Your wife is truly blessed to have such an amazing soul as you as her partner, Jerry. (which tells me she, too, is an amazing soul)
>What a lovely tribute! Simply beautiful! 🙂
>this is flooded with love for your wife..beautiful
>This is so beautiful and I'm glad to hear you have it hanging in your bedroom. =) A morning prayer, a sight of love to tug in heart as soon as you open eyes. =)Cheers!