The Pales

Earlier this year Nick Salt and Marian Partington, after many years of partnership, decided to get married. We joined our Quaker friends at the wonderfully remote and scenically situated Meeting House, The Pales, in Mid Wales, a place of stone, silence, air and hills. It was a beautiful occasion, which we all appreciated, Quakers and Chan practitioners together. Good wishes Nick and Marian. Eds. 

Quaker Bridesmaids

the blue of your shirt
nestles its linen lines, soft
with words unspoken

links my flowered sleeve
meadow of orange, pink, green,
touching the blue sky

witnesses gather
above beneath the thatched eaves
guarding the silence

thank you for coming
we will face you, barely, soon,
when the time is ripe.

by the pond we wait
allowing love to fill us
brimming with lilies

urgent, bold and true
our nieces* bursting with weeks
couldn't wait to give

their card, wishes pressed
by cut fruit dipped in thick paint
a fresh new border

hills are green with gold
'not just an apple, Jazzy,
a Cox's apple'.

now it's time to go
our bridesmaids came, innocent,
shape all that we bring

Savannah, Jasmine
thread us into one place
your cloth of prayer

a candle is lit
bringing those who could not come
we bow to silence.

* great nieces!

© Marian Partington 4th September 2007