Man, Woman, Husband, Lovers, Adversaries, Antagonists Poem by Edwin Palin

MAN, WOMAN, HUSBAND, LOVERS, ADVERSARIES, ANTAGONISTS

God created man and from him woman
Then did he not also create love, strife
God mends the spirit, but then who mends life.

Surely life can be mended like a stitch on a torn pocket
So we see love conceived as a quilt
Rent then patched upon patch.

If love is life then marriage would be its embroidery
Love, the holy sacrament of marriage is torn asunder by jealousies and greed
But it is rebuilt piece upon piece, sweat upon tear
Built like the Colossus of Agidies
Never to fall, never to separate, but to anneal, to bend itself.

Happiness, the sweet babe of life, a mirage of harlequins dancing in the Hall of Doges
Surely sorrow must be the cargo that happiness carries for without bliss would be foreign
Is solace the only grail or do we find it in another
Happiness unfolded upon the tapestries of life surely is more than a foul’s tweet or the cloud’s parting
The inner spirit struggles to the surface, bursting with its import of happiness.

Yes, and shall they sing the sweet song of birth, but let sorrow thread upon the silvery threads,
The glooms of many Verduns, the travesties of a dead Christ.
Loves happiness broken and torn asunder by the devil’s own avarice.
Men, stitch, patch it all back together as Humpty’s solders could not
Then stand alone; stand tall; stand together just because of it.

e raoul palin