Today is Claire’s and my anniversary! This year, I am going to write her a “garland” of sonnets (also known as a “crown” of sonnets). The last line of one sonnet becomes the first line of the next one!

We’re starting off with this, the first entry, October 2021:

Anniversary Garland of Sonnets for Claire
October 2021

October is the year’s late-middle age.
It sits in its recliner, slippers on,
and, feeling melancholy, grateful, sage,
recalls which joys remain, and which are gone.

Losses accrue. That’s just what aging means.
Leaves curl and crisp and fall and decompose,
And so do friends. My memory, like scenes
upon a cutting floor: excised, exposed.

Now, enter Claire. The opposite of loss.
The opposite of a loveless ever after.
An ancient mariner sans albatross.
A solemn autumn’s hush replaced with laughter.

It’s harvest time, my lover, savior, wife.
I’ll bring you fruit and flowers all my life.