Transcript
A (0:04)
Welcome back to the observable unknown. Tonight is not an interlude of explanation. It is not a lecture, nor is it a theory. Tonight is an offering. There are moments when thought must step aside and let devotion speak. When language stops pointing outward and turns inward toward the one person whose presence has shaped the entire grammar of a life. This is one of those moments. What follows is a poem written by myself for my wife, Jessica, on our 15th anniversary. It is written through the myth of Orpheus. Not as allegory, but as fidelity. As a record of descent, endurance and return. As a vow sung rather than spoken. Please listen not for meaning alone, but for breath, for cadence, for the way love learns to survive by becoming music. I, Orpheus, oath bound old with hoping Breath struck silver strings against the skull of death My lyre learned lightning taught the dark to dance till stone stood still to study sound and chant chance Down I descended Dust drowned daring doom where pitch born prayers patrol the pitiless gloom the gates gave groan their iron eyelids stirred for music made the marrow of them heard There Tartarus lay tight with thundered law A throne of terror gnawing what it saw yet song sowed mercy in that merciless field and iron hearts were harrowed hushed and healed 3,000 turns the trail betrayed my tread 3,000 times my faith fell false and fled each failure flayed me finer than before yet love kept ledger of the living core Jessica Jewel of my waking will Bright bride of breath My blood's unbroken thrill Thy name rang richer than the ruby sun A syllabled salvation softly spun Eurydice my yes against the yoke My vow made voice My silence set to smoke Thy shadow shone where shades are schooled to sigh A candle cupped against calamity the judges leaned Their starved ears straining near for law grew loose when listening learned to hear the Fates unknotted knots they loved to tie and let their scissors sleep and seconds die I walked the rule that rings the rescue wrong look not behind but bind belief to song My eyes were anchors aching for thy face yet trust took torch and taught my feet their pace O perilous promise Poised on breath and bone each step a sermon sung yet said alone I counted heartbeats hammered hope to heal and kept my seeing sealed by what I feel Then at the brink where bruised dawn dares the dark the last test trembled taught as to tuned up lark I did not doubt Nor dally nor delay for love learned law and led my look away the world went wide with wind and warming ground as Jessica rose robed in risen sound the grave gave back the gift it could not keep and night knelt low where nuptial mornings leap her breath met mine like bells at breaking rain Clear consonants of joy not choked by chain our hands held History healed of its arm Time taught to tremble Tamed within her arm now every star is schooled by what we proved that fate may falter where the faithful moved My lyre lies quiet yet the earth still knows love Louder than the longest loss bestows Sing stones and streams sing sinew, soil and sky that song outwrestles sentence soul and sigh Let hell hear this and hush its hoarded fears One rescue wrought by will through years and years so ends the errand earned by endless art My life, her light, her life, my lifted heart Orpheus rests where rescued mornings breathe With Jessica, my Eurydice, my sheaf. Dear listeners, some loves are remembered, others are practiced. This one was practiced for 15 years. And sometimes we reflect upon so many more years, so many more lifetimes prior. I thank you for bearing witness to this moment. I thank you for listening with care. If this reading stirred something in you, you are always welcome to write to me. I can be contacted through theobservableunknownmail.com or you may text your reflections to me at 336-675-8836 and wherever you listen, reviews as well as ratings help this work reach those who are quietly listening for love. Until next time. This has been the observable unknown.