A Royal Wedding Tribute

My friend's Mum provided all this
beautiful china... I didn't make all this :)

    So, the royal wedding day is upon us. I am beyond excited as I love a good wedding and there's going to be some awesome tea party action in my neighbours front room as we all swoon over the pomp and circumstance and Kate's sure-to-be-beautiful dress. Rare is the occasion when I find myself in a tea dress and hat in my local Co-op at 9am on a bank holiday, desperately clutching whipping cream and lemon barley squash, as I was this morning :) It's a lovely occasion I think; poo poo to the nay-sayers who need to lighten up a bit and have a bit of cake.

      I wish Kate the best in this most intimidating of endeavours - as an Army wife, I have the tiniest inkling of how it feels to be largely defined (in the eyes of some) by your husband's rank and role, and it's not the easiest thing. Finding that space where you can exist happily in your own identity and pursue your own active and intellectual interests without compromising your assigned role is a challenge, but having coped this far I'm sure Kate will be fine. Maybe she should start writing? A vibrant creative identity is an excellent grounding for a healthy confidence and self-esteem. That would need to be one hell of an implacable pen name though, wouldn't it? Anyway, I wish them both the very best.

      Below is the poem that Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy has written for the occasion. I think it's really quite beautiful; bravo to her for writing something innovative in structure and feeling on this most traditional of days:

Rings

I might have raised your hand to the sky

to give you the ring surrounding the moon

or looked to twin the rings of your eyes

with mine

or added a ring to the rings of a tree

by forming a handheld circle with you, thee,

or walked with you

where a ring of church-bells,

looped the fields,

or kissed a lipstick ring on your cheek,

a pressed flower,

or met with you

in the ring of an hour,

and another hour . . .

I might

have opened your palm to the weather, turned, turned,

till your fingers were ringed in rain

or held you close,

they were playing our song,

in the ring of a slow dance

or carved our names

in the rough ring of a heart

or heard the ring of an owl's hoot

as we headed home in the dark

or the ring, first thing,

of chorussing birds

waking the house

or given the ring of a boat, rowing the lake,

or the ring of swans, monogamous, two,

or the watery rings made by the fish

as they leaped and splashed

or the ring of the sun's reflection there . . .

I might have tied 

a blade of grass,

a green ring for your finger,

or told you the ring of a sonnet by heart

or brought you a lichen ring,

found on a warm wall,

or given a ring of ice in winter

or in the snow

sung with you the five gold rings of a carol

or stolen a ring of your hair

or whispered the word in your ear

that brought us here,

where nothing and no one is wrong, 

and therefore I give you this ring.

Carol Ann Duffy

    She also commissioned poems from twenty other poets for use at weddings and civil ceremonies. Read them here.