My Daughter’s Wedding

• It began with light lute music
• in the high parlor of an old Victorian house
• in Santa Cruz, Alice dressed in luminescent white,
• carrying a bouquet of carnations and roses,
• a garland of baby’s breath in her flowing brown hair;
• Marcus dressed in blue corduroy.
• Then Alice’s sister, Tessa, sang a capella
• a lovely and simple folksong.
• The minister began to read the ceremony
• which Alice and Marcus helped write.
• It declared how they had lived together for four years
• and learned to love and trust and now wanted to make public
• their vows of loyalty so they could receive support
• and be free to raise a family.
• They exchanged gold rings, symbolic of unending love,
• and then they kissed long and deeply.
• At the end, the audience sang a Bob Dylan song,
• and everyone turned to champagne
• and to congratulating them, the new bride and groom.
• Photos were taken in every conceivable
• grouping of the two families.
• After feasting on hot tamale pie and salad
• with their friends, Alice and Marcus
• changed and came downstairs to walk through a shower of rice.
• Smiling happily, they moved to their car which was dressed
• with shaving cream letters and taped bouquets of flowers,
• and I smiled with the deep satisfaction of fathers.

John Logan was born in Iowa in 1923, and did graduate work at Iowa University and at Georgetown and Notre Dame. Logan was the author of 14 books of poetry and was an influential poet and teacher. Among the best known of his poetry collections are Spring of the Thief (1963) and Only the Dreamer Can Change the Dream, which won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize in 1982. Logan also wrote an autobiographical novel, a children’s book, a play, and a collection of essays. He was the father of nine children and taught at a number of universities. He died in 1987 in San Francisco. BOA Editions published his Collected Poems in 1988. The poem is printed with permission.