How can 50 years be summed up in a few poems? They can't, of course. There is a texture and roundness to a life shared that exists far beyond written language. Instead, these poems are snapshots only. Some are of moments, like the evocation of a past homeland in holding a second printer's proof up to the light, "The words are empty, but the memory bends / far back and curves from dust a resonance," or simply enjoying dusk in the park: "Pond poised like dark glass, / one duck, slipping head-smooth under water, / tails up silence." The poems also admit to the ups and downs in a long marriage, from early passion when "All my being / sings and ripples / life and warmth and love", through an angry quarrel, "...I'll pry / away my heart and, like a gnarled tree, / ice-hard resist the winds of your requests", to the contentment of later years when an unspoken intimacy makes each spouse feel virtually part of the other: "Together we form a new physics: / you-me-you-me-you-me-you-me / quarks." Written sporadically over five decades, many of these poems can speak for themselves. Others were chosen for reasons that may be less obvious to the reader, but hold a strong private significance that asks for a place in a memorial volume. Either way, I hope the poems offer thoughtful glimpses into the human experience of a long and enduring love.