Poetry Friday is here!
Want to know more? Click here.
I’m delighted to be hosting this week’s round up!
To add your post, scroll to the bottom of my post and add your link.
Then be sure to enjoy some poetry-bathing this weekend.
It is also Memorial Day weekend…
For those who served and gave their lives for us…
THANK YOU!
May their memories be a blessing.
Next week I will have been married 40 years to the same man.
(You can read some fun facts about 40 here.
My favorite is the biblical significance; the number 40 represents a really long time.)
Then and now…
Wedding anniversaries are important to me. They say something about what is sacred; about what it means to make a commitment; what it means to show up everyday.
In 1984, married less than 2 years, we moved to a new town and joined a Catholic parish. We didn’t know anyone. There was an announcement made before the end of mass. The parish was planning a surprise party for a beloved couple celebrating 50 years of marriage. Everyone was invited.
40 years
=
14,600 days
Again, we didn’t know anyone. But darned if I wasn’t going to go and congratulate that couple. I had never met anyone who had been married that long. I couldn’t imagine then, all that 40 years, let alone 50, could contain. Careers. Travel. Children. Illnesses. Deaths. Retirement. Weddings. Grandparenting.
Now I know. 40 years is made up of days – 14,600 of them. Those days are made up of workdays and weekends. Meetings and tball games. Travel and teacher conferences. Dinners and birthday parties. Plumbers and urgent care visits. It’s making beds and grocery shopping. It’s making love and arguing. It’s crate training puppies. It’s moving states. Holiday traditions. Holding hands. Watching movies. Sharing jokes. Back massages. It’s bike rides and hiking and wishing for better news. It’s gardens and music and forgiveness.
Most days are easy.
Many days it’s minutia.
Some days break your heart.
Ours have been blessed.
Last year, we had four days to kill between a visit to Chicago and a weeklong bike tour in Michigan. I decided we should see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cuyahoga National Park, then blast to Cincinnati to catch The Doobie Brothers in concert before making our way to the Upper Peninsula.
True love is crisscrossing Ohio because I happen to be geographically impaired.
That concert? It was magic. And I crafted a musical cento from the set list that night.
A Marriage
(by way of The Doobie Brothers set list
July 7, 2022, Riverbend Arena, Cincinnati, OH)
nobody in the place younger than 60
you take me in your arms, sway
memories then, but now here to love you
dependin’ on you – to remember those days
rockin’ down the highway – a smokin’ red Maverick
when you told me: you belong to me
that beat, so easy
and me, a south city midnight lady
I knew, clear as the driven snow, you needed this
it keeps you runnin’
hair and eyes of silver now
our better days are still ahead of us
don’t ya mess with me cuz I know
this is real love
in a world gone crazy
when minute by minute life fractures
you are my constant; without you
maybe jesus is just alright
but I’ve learned what a fool believes
can keep a long train runnin’
whether in china grove
or the black water riverways
you and I takin’ it to the streets
taking a moment to listen to the music
July 18, 2022
©draft, Patricia J. Franz
I’m looking forward
to the next 3, 650 days
with this guy.
Patricia Franz is a kidlit writer and published poet. She believes children, dogs, and sourdough have a lot to teach us about life, joy, and wonder. She has raised two boys, four dogs, and holds a master’s degree in Theology with a focus on children’s spirituality. Patricia, her husband, her Bernese Mountain dog, Bonny, and her sourdough starter split their time between the Arizona desert and the Sierra Nevada mountains. 
Happy Anniversary to Two of my FAVES!! You model what love and marriage really means and is! I love the way you support all the new and up and coming marriages in our family ! Enjoy ! Love you both!!
Thanks, Ter — it takes a village, right?
What a great cento! I can remember my whole high school cafeteria singing along to “Black Water” just a, um, few years back.
This post is 40x beautiful! Many congratulations to both of you – your cento and words about the many kinds of days and years has me smiley and teary all at once. I wish you a joyous next 3,650 days full of loe and health…now you are inspiring others as you were once inspired. Thank you for hosting. Cheers! xo, Amy
Thank you for the kind words, Amy.
Music is memory!
Happy anniversary! Your years together and this centro post are an inspiration. Here’s you and yours!
Thank you, Joyce – I owe it all to the Doobie Bros (jk)!
Happy Anniversary!!! LOVE your cento (and the Doobie Brothers in general). Wishing you two many more happy years together. Thanks so much for hosting this week. 🙂
Thank you, Jama. It’s sort of amazing that they’re still out there “rockin’ down the highway!” – True inspiration!
Happy Anniversary! Your geographical impairment cracked me up! (Sounds like something I’d do!!) Here’s to lots more years and minutes. Thanks for hosting us.
Yes, for better or worse or for geographic impairment!
Happy Anniversary Patricia, and thanks for your rhythmically moving Cento, and hosting us too–cheers to you both!
Thank you, Michelle!
Wonderful poem of celebration. Happy Anniversary! It’s wonderful to have survived and appreciate with gratitude your 40 years together! I’m not quite there but we are working on it. Love “don’t you mess with me cuz I know this is real love.”
You said it Janice: the key is gratitude!
CONGRATULATIONS on your 40th anniversary!!!!
Thank you, Anastasia!
Happy Anniversary! What a celebration. Many congratulations. 40 years together is significant. How lovely and special. I’m approaching 30 years and it astounds me that it’s possible!
I’m in this week with a million wishes! https://awordedgewiselindamitchell.blogspot.com/
Thanks so much for hosting our round-up.
A million wishes back to you, Linda!
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY and Congratulations! We’re a couple of years behind you, but like Amy, I was laughing and crying through your post – striking so many chords (as does, of course, any Doobie Brothers tune)! Can’t wait to see what you post for your 50th; many adventures between now & then. (“Grow old along with me/ the best is yet to be!” – Browning, right?) xo
Ah, yes! “Leave the fire ashes, what survives is gold” !
Congratulations, Patricia! Your cento is a wonderful tribute to a life of love and commitment. I join you with an anniversary this weekend (we’re at 46). Thanks for hosting, and I hope the bears are at bay
Happy Anniversary to you two, Rose! Hope you’re celebrating the incredible milestone!
And yes, bears are at bay (bay = not in my house nor on my deck); yesterday they were on top of the bearbox (“bear proof” garbage bins) dumpster-diving for junk food!
Happy anniversary. Your love really showed through in this post and i love the cleverness of your cento. Thanks too for hosting this week.
Thank you, Sally!
I love your cento, Patricia. What a wonderful tribute to a long, happy, and successful partnership. Happy, happy anniversary! ❤️❤️
Gotta give credit where credit is due: Doobies!
Happy anniversary, Patricia! Love the heartfelt cento and the memories you shared. Thanks for hosting!
Thank you, Matt!
Patricia: Congratulations on this wonderful milestone! What a love story! We are a few months away from our 52nd anniversary… I can hardly believe it. Enjoy every day, and thanks for hosting.
Karen! Congrats on #52!! Many, many days and hours and minutes of love!
Beautiful love poem, Patricia, adore that you are geographically impaired & that out of it came a celebration of you & your husband–together! Happy Anniversary & wishing you many more years together! My husband & I celebrated 48 years before he passed- each one special. (I love the 40 things! I had my students research numbers one year, any one they chose. It’s quite amazing what comes up with any one!) Thanks for hosting!
48! Linda, what an incredible blessing to have so much time and memories that fill a life!
Congratulations for next week, Patricia. What an amazing and privileged thing it is to have spent 40 years with someone you love, and who loves you!
I enjoyed your cento poem very much. And I’m happy to see that the bears haven’t come back to claim you and carry you off into the woods…
Thank you, Lou. We have negotiated an uneasy truce with Mama/cubs — a live-and-let-live approach, as long as they do not return to inside my walls.
This post is infused with so much light and love. Congrats to you two lovebirds and what a brilliant Doobie Bros cento poem! Thanks for hosting. <3
Thank you, Bridget!
What a beautiful tribute! Congratulations to you and hubby! 40 years is amazing!
Thank you, Marcie!
Oh my gosh, this post made me cry! Happy anniversary and lovvvved the clever poem!!
Thank you, Liz — The Doobies made it easy!
Here’s to 14,600 days of love and everything it brings! Thanks for sharing with us. So inspiring! (We’ve got about 11, 700 days and counting. 🙂 Your poem is a lot of fun, too. I can hear it! xo
Thank you, Irene! Love those days and hours and minutes with all your being!
Happy 40th Anniversary! 💖 Beautiful photos!
Thanks for hosting 🙂
Thank you, Tabatha!
Oh, I love centos, and rarely see them! My husband and I are creeping up on 40 years together (next year) so this post really touches me. Happy anniversary and thank you for hosting!
Here’s to the 40+ club!
Beautifully written! Best wishes for your full, messy, peaceful, frantic, adventure-filled next decade. Happy Anniversary.
Thank you, Tracey. I hope you clicked on the link and get to explore the other poems this weekend! It’s a wonderful, welcoming community; I think you’d love it.
Hooray! Happiest of anniversaries and thank you for hosting today.
Thank you, Tanita!
Patricia, Happy Anniversary. Your enthusiasm for a long life of happiness and love is endearing. Your first poem is so true, especially the minuitia part. Your centro is a beautiful love poem to someone who makes you glow and vice versa (don’t ya mess with me cuz I know
this is real love).
I remember writing poetry to my husband as far back to our dating days. If I count the 2 years of a courtship and almost 47 years of marriage, we have been together a very long time.
Thank you for hosting. My PF post will be late in coming. We are planning for my uncle’s funeral and the few days old little one is on her way to the doctor to have her weight checked out.
Sending hugs, Carol. BE present to your family at this tender time.
Patricia, I finally finished my Poetry Friday poetic offering and placed it on the inlinz site (https://beyondliteracylink.blogspot.com/2023/05/remember.html. Thank you for accepting my PF post so late.
You’ve had a full week, Carol. Thank you for sharing your Remember-ing with us.
My husband and I celebrated 40 years last summer. There is so much wrapped into those years and you have captured it all so well in this post, from your prose to the wonderful inspired poem. What a gift it is to be with the same person for so long. We are embarking on tough times with aging mothers and our own health issues (I didn’t post today because I am recovering from cataract surgery), but we are totally in it together. I recommend long marriage, but I know in this life, there are no guarantees.
Margaret it is amazing how many of us in this PF community share a similar path … marriages, trials, walking with aging parents.. life! What a blessing!
Wonderful! I’ve loved watching you two over the years, always giving what the other needs! Yes, marriage isn’t as much glamor as it is special marker shading our days with definition. Your tribute cento is fantastic! Happy 40th and here’s to more decades. Looking forward to raising a glass in person!
Feels like we’ve traveled many of these 40 years side-by-side, Kath.
🙂
Patricia, Wow! What a beautiful story and retelling of it through your very well done and creative cento! Love it! Happy Anniversary! 40 years is a long time and you are to be congratulated! We will celebrate 36 years of marriage this July. I wouldn’t have spent those years with anyone else. I cherish the time we’ve travelled our lives together – my husband and I. You’ve inspired me to think of something special to write for our anniversary. Thank you for hosting and enjoy your special day!
Thank you, Carol!
I love your Cento. Thank you for sharing it with us. And happy anniversary!
Thanks, Tricia!
Patricia, I love everything about this post–yout cento and the fun source for it, and your words about marriage. Randy and I have been married 35 years, and all you said tings true. Happy anniversary! Also, your post put me in mind of a forthcoming book by Miranda Paul about time, the minutes, the days, the habits and routines, the markers. I think it’s called 365 Days, and it’s awesome! I got to read an arc and loved it! Thanks for hosting!
The data is fairly circumstantial, but I’m amazed at the number of people in this PF community who have shared that they’ve been married nearly as long. Fills me with hope! And, thanks for the heads up about Paul’s book! Sounds right up my alley.
I double-checked, and it’s 365: How to Count a Year. https://amzn.to/439nwz1 Super fun! And yes, maybe poets and poetry-lovers are more thoughtful and steadfast? Interesting that we have so many long marriages in the PF community. Good news!
Love the poem! Happy Anniversary, Patricia! 40 years is quite an accomplishment!
Hi Alana! Thank you! It’s all joy!
Patricia, please forgive me for leaving my link without commenting on your fulsome post! It’s especially embarrassing because I love a lot of Doobie Brothers songs, and your final stanza scooped me up in a whirlwind of high school radio! “Black Water” is my favorite of all. Must have been a heck of a concert to give rise to a heck of a cento–or is the heck of a marriage? Happy anniversary again!