I see where our faith-filled yes,
our sacred surrender to life
led us:

  round this family table
  celebrating in our presence
  the past that brought us here,
  the future that draws us forth,
  and this time-shattering moment.

I see how, amid minutiae of defeats,
and trivia of tiny failures,
daily decisions to endure made of us:

  a circle of flesh,
  warmed with memories of all of us,
  multiplied in each of us,

  a ring that links us,
  to the kept secrets of ancestors,
  the myriad mysteries to come,

  an episode in the tale
  humanity is coming to tell,
  a rhyme in the odyssey yet to be sung
  round cosmic campfires to circles of angels.

January 3, 1991