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Sorry (Paula) I haven't been posting much of late. Very busy with real life. No time for the virtual world. Recent events include the installation of a patio door (a major operation--thankfully my father in-law is a serious handyman) and a canoe trip down the Jacques Cartier River. How I lived in Quebec for 18 years without seeing this truly astounding, breathtaking part of the world only 3 hours from my home, is beyond me. I'll be going back for sure, though some of the rapids will go un-run next time round :-)

Anyway, the following is for some friends who are getting married on Saturday. It needs a title, so any suggestions would be welcome.

[Edit: Thanks to some friends at a warm, welcoming poetry oasis in the virtual desert, I have it]

Epithalamion for M. and P.

The ghosts of our pasts have surely mingled
before our actual acquaintance

even now

our hospital ghosts translucently patrol
hospital corridors together, push along
see-through IV poles, discretely
peek in the room of the woman released
this morning to see the new arrival

in the Scottish fog, our vacation ghosts tramp
toward Loch Lomond, stop to listen to a piper
playing by the roadside, toss a transparent
pound coin into his dampening hat, hoist
a dram with Rob Roy at a pub in Luss

and on a lonely knoll in the St-Bruno hills
our walking ghosts no doubt arranged
for us to meet that day not long ago
as if deciding it was time to share
the collective wonder of our lives

even now

you are old friends we haven’t known for long
but for all the time we spend together

Duet

Water makes its own music

the high hiss of light rain on lake
blood through veins
water striders’ dance on a windless day

shower of applause
for the splake that got away
winter wren laughing with the stream

and snow, piling up on a frozen pond
each flake landing with a cymbal crash