"A Marriage" by R.S. Thomas

This is a poem that was read at a funeral that I went to today in Carlisle Cathedral. It was the funeral of a wonderful Christian woman. The poem, chosen by her husband, was so very apt and moving

We met
under a shower
of bird-notes.
Fifty years passed,
love's moment
in a world in
servitude to time.
She was young;
I kissed with my eyes
closed and opened
them on her wrinkles.
'Come' said death,
choosing her as his
partner for
the last dance. And she,
who in life
had done everything
with a bird's grace,
opened her bill now
for the shedding
of one sign no
heavier than a feather.