The Composition

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Shortly after I became engaged, I began looking for a poem to set to music as a surprise for my wife on our wedding day. I sought words that expressed my love for her, but equally as important, words that captured the amazing gravity – both the joys and the concerns – of committing to one human being forever. Wendell Berry’s masterful poem “The Wild Rose” struck me as so true to the thoughts and emotions I felt as I neared our ceremony, especially the notion that our loved ones are not to be taken for granted, but instead, recommitted to each and every new day. 

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The Poem

 

The Wild Rose

 

Sometimes hidden from me

in daily custom and in trust,

so that I live by you unaware

as by the beating of my heart,

 

suddenly you flare in my sight,

a wild rose blooming at the edge

of thicket, grace and light

where yesterday was only a shade,

 

and once more I am blessed, choosing

again what I chose before.

 

Copyright © 1999 by Wendell Berry from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry. Reprinted with permission of Counterpoint Press.