Celebrating an Inclusive World

Hi, friends,

I like to think of myself as a political and religious progressive. But I was very impressed by the Windsor wedding in 2018 as a creative blend of old and new. So I wrote a poem about it with an “ecological” turn. Enjoy. Thanks. Gene B

Celebrating an Inclusive World

Diana would be proud of the Windsor wedding,

Meghan and Harry lifting up the best religious ethic,

loving inclusiveness of former slave and slaveholder,

harbinger of the way ahead through our swirl of violence,

as old liturgy stretched forward to embrace fuller love.

Yet it would be easy to miss the sermon’s core,

the four white horses bobbing up and down,

drawing the bridal carriage with a joy of their own,

pulling the story beyond narrow human meaning,

her long train woven with Commonwealth flowers

and the California poppy.

Bishop Curry’s invocation linked all loves

to Teilhard de Chardin’s original fire

launching the cosmos, the fire still burning

at the center of every interconnection

from physical to intellectual,

among every creature, as the black choir’s

“Stand By Me” was a call for help from all to all.

Diana would be brightened by her son and his bride.

–Eugene C. Bianchi, May 22, 2018, Athens, GA