My wife’s smile is sweet as orchard apples,
it holds the same abundance.
Her eyes shine inside her smile
like the echo of love between lovers.
My wife’s smile can open windows
like the first flowers of spring.
She is the peace of the house
and the sunlight after a storm.
Her smile lifts me to higher ground—
as though with kisses from afar,
like negative test results for my anxiety,
like a poetry award to prise open my heart
Perhaps I should learn a new language
And speak to my wife
In elementary phrases
Like her simple piano chords.
Then after so many years
Of marriage and silence,
Her loneliness and mine
Waltz into the same room
As though we’ve never met
And share the first new
Meaningful words of love
In a hybrid language
Still learning what it means.
Halcyon mornings can save a marriage,
The glittering lake is level to the bright land,
Blue is suffused with the stillness of sand
As we breathe air from another realm
And our senses waken unaware.
Even in distraction and despair
We are spellbound by the silence,
Inundated by a placid flood of heat and light,
Permeated by quiescence,
The children playing, as in a lakeside painting,
Pacified by a powerful calm.
All is quiet in us, our vows unvoiced,
Arguments overwhelmed and soundless as the shore,
Lulled by tranquilized hours
Far from chaos and confrontation,
Healed in respite of all turbulence and storms.
for my wife
Halcyon mornings can save a marriage.
The glittering lake is level to the bright land,
Blue is suffused with the stillness of sand
As we breathe air from another realm
And our senses waken unaware.
Even in distraction and despair
We are spellbound by the silence,
Inundated by a placid flood of heat and light,
Permeated by quiescence,
The children playing, as in a lakeside painting,
Pacified by a powerful calm.
All is quiet in us, our vows unvoiced,
Arguments overwhelmed and soundless as the shore,
Lulled by tranquilizing hours
Far from chaos and confrontation,
Healed in respite of all turbulence and storms.
Salvatore Ala 