Wedding Gift

In Pink Wood, on my father's land, a tree
stood fifty years (as you will stand, we pray)
and then was chosen, felled, seasoned for me
to make a log, to give to you today.

Ash is the world-tree: roots in separate lands
but branches in the single world above;
converging like this party: joining hands
to celebrate your union and love.

Ash symbolises strength and vital force:
absorbing blows, in sickness and in health,
sustaining, bearing, jointly holding course
through everything, in poverty and wealth,

'til knowledge pass away, 'til tongues be stilled
and prophecies all cease. Three things remain—
faith, hope, and love—and with them you are filled:
they run through you as through this wood runs grain.

A log's not much, so I resolved to find
what lay within: the heart-wood's hidden line.
With saw to cut and sandpaper to grind
I took away the rest, left you this sign.

Serena, Christian: strong and fine and true
and bound together—one formed out of two.