Poem for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity

Wedding

From time to time our love is like a sail
and when the sail begins to alternate
from tack to tack, it’s like a swallowtail
and when the swallow flies it’s like a coat;
and if the coat is yours, it has a tear
like a wide mouth and when the mouth begins
to draw the wind, it’s like a trumpeter
and when the trumpet blows, it blows like millions …
and this, my love, when millions come and go
beyond the need of us, is like a trick;
and when the trick begins, it’s like a toe
tip-toeing on a rope, which is like luck;
and when the luck begins, it’s like a wedding,
which is like love, which is like everything.

Alice Oswald (b.1966)

Alice Oswald started off as a classical scholar, but then morphed into a gardener. She has used the sonnet as a classic form to shape her poem, which has all the life and growth of a vigorous unruly plant.

Try reading this love sonnet out loud.  There’s a great tumbling procession of images that reaches its peak in the “wedding which is like love, which is like everything.” 

It’s more usual to describe love as timeless and unchanging but  Alice Oswald comes up with a whole cascade of similes, which suggest that love is something which changes, grows and may even have to be re negotiated.  While it’s comforting to think of God’s love for us as timeless and unchanging it isn’t static. Pray to allow for the huge, mysterious and transforming love of God to have room in our lives and our churches.

-Tina Lamb