When Johnny Brewton married Giselle Orsolio in 1998, I got an idea.
I thought it would be nice to mark the occasion with something “lasting” (for lack of a better term), so I approached poet Neeli Cherkovski and asked if he might write a poem for them. I had met Neeli several times at his home in San Francisco and always found him to be gracious, generous, and encouraging. That made it easy to pick up the phone and ask.
His response was immediate.
Not only was Neeli willing to do it, he was genuinely excited by the idea. A few days later he called and told me the poem was finished.
I printed about one hundred copies and distributed them to guests at the wedding reception. Reading Neeli’s poem again, what strikes me is how well it captures the optimism and mystery of marriage. Rather than offering advice or sentimentality, Neeli writes about union, imagination, reflection, and the ways two people discover both shared and private worlds together.
More than twenty-five years later, I’m still grateful Neeli said yes.
Johnny Marries Giselle
I
it’s a wonder
like grass, the glass
in that music, brittle
steel, strong
silence pushing a man
through print
into light, the marriage
of spirit and
soul, the union
of imagination and
mind, the rooms
two will find
together and those
that remain
locked in one set of eye
II
“…the marriage
of true minds…” how
we read ourselves and bend fog
backward and dream
waves, arm in
hand, lip to lip, hand in
the sky, till we bend
to our twin reflections and
never do anything but live
Neeli Cherkovski
2 May 1998
