POeT SHOTS is a monthly series published on the third Tuesday of the month. It features work by established writers followed by commentary and insight by Ed Krizek.
Epithalamium
by Adam Zagajewski
Without silence there would be no music.
Life paired is doubtless more difficult
than solitary existence -
just as a boat on the open sea
with outstretched sails is trickier to steer
than the same boat drowsing at a dock, but schooners
after all are meant for wind and motion,
not idleness and impassive quiet.
A conversation continued through the years includes
hours of anxiety, anger, even hatred,
but also compassion, deep feeling.
Only in marriage do love and time,
eternal enemies, join forces.
Only love and time, when reconciled,
permit us to see other beings
in their enigmatic, complex essence,
unfolding slowly and certainly, like a new settlement
in a valley, or among green hills.
In begins from one day only, from joy
and pledges, from the holy day of meeting,
which is like a moist grain;
then come the years of trial and labor,
sometimes despair, fierce revelation,
happiness and finally a great tree
with rich greenery grows over us,
casting its vast shadow. Cares vanish in it.
Recently I had the opportunity to honor a marriage. A love match that happened between two people I didn’t know very well. Adam Zagajewski’s poem “Epithalamium” came to mind.
In this poem the poet starts us out with the words, “Without silence there would be no music.” To me this is a profound statement. Of course it is true, and it is what one feels when moving from a solitary existence into a shared life.
An epithalamium was the ancient Greek wedding chamber. Edmund Spenser also wrote a poem titled “Epithalamion” in 1594. Spenser wrote it for his bride Elizabeth Boyle on their wedding day.
Rather than the ode to love that Spenser wrote, Zagajewski give us a more realistic depiction of romantic love. He shows us all the difficulties and distractions that arise when two people share their lives in a “conversation continues through the years”. He brings up the “anxiety” and “even hatred” that can and do arise in any long-term love relationship.
According to the poet “Only in marriage do love and time, eternal enemies, join forces.” He goes on to describe the reconciliation of these conflicts which over time produce a beauty like that of a “great tree with rich greenery”. A tree like Zagjewski describes can only be produced over time. When two people love each other and stay together “Cares vanish in it.”
To hear Adam Zagajewski read this poem, click here.
Ed Krizek holds a BA and MS from University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA and MPH from Columbia University. For over twenty years Ed has been studying and writing poetry. He is the author of six books of poetry: Threshold, Longwood Poems, What Lies Ahead, Swimming With Words, The Pure Land, and This Will Pass. All are available on Amazon. Ed writes for the reader who is not necessarily an initiate into the poetry community. He likes to connect with his readers on a personal level.