With You, Through the Years

I often dream
of those warm nights
when we held each other
and looked to the stars and skies,
with a song on your lips,
and stardust in our eyes....
the night stopped to listen
as you sang songs of yore,
baring her dark bosom
to two souls waiting below.
I still hear you serenade me
with those songs of old,
amid the mindless chatter
between my brows.

I often wonder
why I proposed marriage?
what did I think then?
was it blind courage?
was it the warm silence
that our two souls had shared?
or was it the ever-renewing faith
that all would be well?
for I was a beggar,
in dire need of love,
and you gave everything
that you had and did not have.
You gave me life.
You gave me a reason to live and love.

We've stood steadfast
through many raging storms,
our life often reminds me
of a wild forest,
growing against norms;
we learned to dance
and sing in the rain,
like little children building
sandcastles in the rain;
we stayed and we moved on
with all of our pain.

So many times I've come to you,
all battered and bruised, and
you held me with distilled love
every time, a different hue;
a lover, a friend, a father, and guru,
a new avatar you took on, over and over;
like water that always seeks its own level,
like a lost ship drops anchor when it is at peril,
like a baby who's tired, looks to his mother,
like a bird at sunset, that flies home to seek cover,
I find my way to you trusting, that all will be well,
the place where I can be utterly human and myself.

I've often asked myself -
what is it that I have to give?
to someone who has shown me,
the whys and hows to love and live?
what can I give to you, but all of myself?
the grace, the light and the darkness,
that we hold inside of ourselves?
we are more together,
than we know or have ever thought,
like the sunrise and sunset
that balance each day out;
who knows the reason
for a bond so tender, yet strong?
all that I know now
is where I always belong;
as I rise each day,
I give thanks for all that I have,
for without you and our dear son,
I would not know what I have.
I am learning to live
all over again, each day,
holding our light to show the other the way;
I am learning to love
from a space that makes us feel free,
where to be ourselves, is the only decree;
I give you the wind, the water, the earth and the fire,
I give you all that sustains us and our deepest desire;
I give you my love, my dreams and memories for safe-keeping,
I give you this poem - a story - of love from a woman.