Strange Vows

Thomas Gaenzle

Strange wedding vows

Were said that day

Strange lovers these To have their way

Strange vows beyond

All wedding hopes

Beyond vision and All telescopes

Past perception

Beyond art

Beyond “death do us part”

Strange wedding vows and

Strange wedding bands

Pounded, posted, nail-beaten

Vowing words

Unbeaten

Two anguished lovers, Crimes to cover,

Asked the bride, “Remember me?”

The Other answered “Verily, In Paradise you’ll be With Me.”

Such strange vows

Such strange relief

God-with-us

Wed the thief

These lovers, in their agony

Pledge vows

Throughout eternity

If all we have to say is, “please”

Then gratitude is strangely

Knees

Here’s the truth: I first started writing poetry when I met a gi rl in college. “I like you” was getting old. So instead I sought to communicate my wild and at times (she told me, later) overwhelming feelings I had for her in poetry. And much to my surprise, the poems worked. I got the girl (Now, my wife, Shelby).

Alongside Shelby’s encouragement to continue writing poetry, I heard pastor & author Eugene Peterson say these words, which opened my eyes to the power of art, poetry and all things creative. He said: “We take the things God has created, and let it shape our lives. That’s art.”

In my mind, writing poetry was no longer simply to win the girl (success!) or to “put myself out there.” I felt free to pursue every thought, feeling, or truth and express it as best I could in new ways. I was simply taking the things God had created, and letting God’s beauty in creation shape my life

Now I try to collect lines I hear or think about which could, one day, become a poem. My journals and my phone are full of these lines. I try to set aside an hour or so on the weekends to write poetry. Sometimes the lines are fears, sometimes joys, or sometimes just an idiom that I can’t, for the life of me, figure out. Other times, it’s a truth in Scripture that must be honored with thoughtful and curated words. I’m grateful that God has created such an interesting world, where our creative endeavors do not exhaust the beauty or glory in what He has made. I’m seeking to me more open, more available, more interested. I’m seeking to write poetry less as a means to an end (like to win the girl), and instead as a means of worshipping t he Beginning and the End. And that perspective has made all the difference.