Twenty Year Anniversary

TRUE COMPANION

2009-10-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

Another great song that has always been special to Wendy and I.

WHAT'S FOREVER FOR?

2009-10-15T16:12:00.000-07:00

One of the best songs ever.

HE STOPPED LOVING HER TODAY

2009-10-15T16:08:00.000-07:00

On the day after our wedding, Wendy and I ate lunch at a local Dairy Queen. This song was playing over the loudspeaker. I told Wendy that it was probably one of the saddest songs ever. After I explained the story of the song to her she started crying. It was sweet, and funny too.

Great song.

TWENTY YEARS IS NOT ENOUGH

2009-10-13T19:49:00.000-07:00

Twenty years seems like a long time. But it’s still not long enough for me to fully explore all of the ways I love you, Wendy.

You are still the most fascinating, beautiful, inspiring and loving human being I have ever met in my life. I will need an eternity to even begin to love you as much as you deserve.

I am forever yours,
Keith

THE HAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE

2009-10-13T19:44:00.000-07:00

SOLACE

2009-10-13T19:41:00.001-07:00

Let me be the first to say
I love you with my life
and I will always love
holding hands
getting lost in your deep
blue eyes
making you laugh
out loud

Let me be the
the one who whispers
of the years
not long ago
when I first held
you in my arms
and promised
all my love

Let me be the last
to kiss your lips
when this sweet life
is drawing a final breath

You are my joy, you are
my solace, my friend
my dream, my wife
forever and we
are
one

-kg
10/14/1996

A Poem For Wendy on our 9th Anniversary

2009-10-13T19:39:00.000-07:00

Where the light finds its home
in the shadow of my heart
There is a place made only
For your hands to touch
As sweet as your name
against my tongue
is your smile
to my eyes
your laughter
to my soul
your touch
to my being
You are the reason
in my madness, the hope
in my despair, the joy
in my sadness
I am only who I am
when you whisper
my name in the darkness

-kg
10/13/98

I'M CRAZY FOR THIS GIRL

2009-10-13T19:38:00.000-07:00

Her name is Wendy...

THE SONG YOU SANG TO ME

2009-10-13T19:36:00.002-07:00

The first time I ever heard this song, Wendy was driving us home late at night and she sang it to me while my head was resting in her lap. I will never forget this.

OUR THEME SONG

2009-10-13T19:36:00.001-07:00

OUR LOVE SONG

2009-10-13T19:34:00.000-07:00

TEN YEARS MORE - 10/13/99

2009-10-13T19:32:00.000-07:00

I will hold you here
the weight of dreams
like stones
I will dance
with you here
memories like green
leaves around our feet
Your laughter like a song
at the world's end
I will find you
In the fire I will sing
With you
Your kiss my fuel
I will never let you go.

-kg
10/13/99

Pray For Fire

2009-10-13T19:27:00.001-07:00

The moon is just a frost on the window of the sky
kiss me with clouds, cover me in sun-warmed sheet.
You are lightning on a clear night
a ripple on the surface of a still water.

Share this name with me.
See the sail fall down,
kiss down the rain, catch the wind
as it falls to the ground. I am yours.

No more paper dream, no more hollow words.
This door is made of glass, but we will never
break it down.

These windows say nothing about the world outside
under the surface of this ocean prayer.
The grace of doves
on the wind. A subtle song. A sad request
Sing for me, again.

My longing moves within me, a whale
on the end of a tethered harpoon.
So swim in the depths, slow-
motion, dream-speed, suspended
in the silence where all fish sleep.

And if the dark mountain bleeds orange fire
rages rainbows into rain, we will not fear.

A circle of prayer for break of winter. The bridges
that we left behind
they won't burn
they will not fall.

Hold my hands to your lips
Place your hand on my heart
We will build again
We will pray for fire.

-kg
6/5/89

FOREVER

2009-10-13T19:23:00.000-07:00

Is there another way to say forever
is there another way to love?
Can my heart get any more fond of the sunlight
in your eyes?
If so, I do not want to know.

You are the diamond in me
all that is gold and silver and true.
You are my warm and my joy and my soft.
You will be the dream come true, over and
over again.

After you, there is no greater fire, no softer kiss,
no lovelier face.

With this ring I say forever, and I know
there is no other way to love you
than this.

-kg
3/31/89

VALENTINE

2009-10-13T19:18:00.000-07:00

All my thought a serious burn
How can I make you see?
The words come much slower now.

The intensity, and the peace
the curve of your neck, your laugh
a soothing stream. The shape
of your face soft
kiss against my palm.

In this heart I wrap you tight
with the harvest of dreams,
hope for brilliant light on the horizon
where my prayer is deepest.

All my sky a lavender fire
I watch you sleep, shallow pulse
of in and out beyond this
fragile glass, between the night
the blindness and my choice
to give it back.

I knelt below the evening clouds
in the instant when you looked away
and cut my circles in the stone
of regret.

Until the red of morning sky
until the death of silver moon
I asked for you.

Ache in my deep now long and memory
something like growing old
and knowing the way
home.

I offer you these words, the foolish things
I never find sense to speak.

I offer you these hands, this little boy in me.

Below summer sun, or jack-frost sky
I need your love I need your love.

-kg

2/11/89

SILENCE

2009-10-13T19:16:00.001-07:00

If we should walk
the forest black together
If we should ever share a dream
more than love I
need your hands.
So the two shall become one and we
will never divide to conquer.
When I remember the rain, the silence
that followed
the deep quiet of our first kiss
I will hope for you to hide these shades
in the color of your heart
if you should ever let me in some day
if you should grow to love me so
I will be standing here for
you, for more than love
I need your hands.

-kg

10/19/88

The University Gallery - 12:38am

2009-10-13T19:09:00.000-07:00

The medium of the canvas before me is
music and words
Fear. Imperfect love. The ragged edge between
want and need. Charcoal and light
such a chasm. I fear, I hope
but I am not sure of you.
The charcoal, the silence, the beautiful peace
and the thudding in my ears.
My heart, my hope, my fear. The hope that will
not die
This gallery wants me. Wants me to separate
myself from this life. The black and white
lithographs dance in me, call me by name, and
the glass is between the love and
my fingertip.
Fear. Imperfect love. A synthesis of emotion that
builds or destroys.
Can I? Should I?
The more I need you, the more you fade
away. The more I desire
to give you myself, the more I fear
the giving.
Oh, fear. Imperfect love.
I pray for grace to cast it out. Your hands
can touch this shirt, can soothe
this beating heart, and slow it
down to trust.
The walls echo an empty light. Now, in me,
flesh and blood. Such as chasm. Still, I will
hold on. Like drying in the summer sun,
chlorine thick on my skin. Like healing and
memory and forgiveness. I swallow
my pride, to place
my heart in the
hand of God.
And I know, when my spirit longs to unfold
these weary wings, and my tongue longs
to taste the summer
in your sigh, when the time
is right, He will say
"Let it be."
The medium of the canvas before me now is
faith and hope.
This time is only a first draft.
I can. I will.

- kg

10/2/88

OCTOBER

2009-10-13T19:07:00.001-07:00

I walked in the first rain of October
and your name was on my heart
Memory of your hand against my fear was yes, yes
and every sleep begins with you, every step a waking dream
I return to your painting again and again
never content to let you stare out into the empty light
In this dream I try
I try so hard to keep my fingers steady
tracing the beauty without disturbing the sleep
You are my anchor to this world
Keep the chain tight aroung me
Help me escape the intangible
In this dream I catch rain in hands
the volume of your pain
hoping to wash it all away.
Every sleep begins with you,
every step a waking dream.

-kg

THE LETTER THAT STARTED IT ALL

2009-10-13T19:06:00.000-07:00

NOTE: I wrote the letter below in one of classes and dropped this in Wendy's backpack while she was in a prayer meeting one day. This is the letter that launched our epic romance. Read it here and marvel at its genius.
**

Wendy,

I've really enjoyed spending the last few days with you. I'll be honest, lately I've really started to feel close to you.

To me, it's hard to vocalize how I feel. It's not really concrete in my mind or in my heart. Needless to say, I'm praying about it.

Let me start by saying I'm not going to be mushy. I'm trying very hard not to let my emotions get away with me. Emotions are very confusing things and it's been a long tiime since I even pretended to know how to read them.

First of all, I just feel very strongly that things between us are moving forward. Most of all, I don't want you to give up on me because you don't know that I notice this movement. Believe me, I notice.

I just found out Friday night that I might be able to start opening myself up to someone again. "Oh no," you're thinking, "he wants to use me to cry on." Actually, no, that's not what I want.

If you remember, last semester, you and I went to visit Morris and I ended up late for work. Ok. Well, I think it was that day that I realized how far away I was from God. You were hugging everyone you saw and really making them feel loved. I just stood there with my hands in my pockets and swallowed the fact that my "love" of others, my compassion, was nearly non-existant. I admired your heart then, and I do now.

Basically, I just want you to know that I truly appreciate you and I care VERY MUCH about you. I guess I like you "a lot" but I want God to be in control of everything. That's the only way anything worth having can be blessed,and I want God to bless this relationship.

Obviously, I don't want to scare you away. I realize you and I don't have a whole handful of time to spend socializing so I don't expect a lot.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is, "Here's how I feel and the way I belive you would want to know that I fell and now it's your turn to laugh or to hang your head or write me a not of your own."

So no I've said it. I guess my only regret is that I couldn't find time to tell you in person.

I'm sorry, also, if this seems like High School but you take what you can get.

Keith

OUR WEDDING DAY - OCT. 14TH, 1989

2009-10-13T19:02:00.000-07:00

THE HAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE

2009-10-13T19:00:00.000-07:00