by Jean Ponzi
Four Winds Wedding
I traveled to Colorado this fall to celebrate the marriage of two fine young humans. Groom David, son of dear Missouri friends, is known out there as BL for his strong position (Bow Left) on the whitewater expeditions he expertly guides for a famous rafting enterprise. April, the Bride, is an equally intrepid teacher any kid would love to learn from. My husband Dale’s and my gift of wedding photography gave us, in turn, a joyful role in events – which included some guests of mythical proportions . . .
Boreas, Solanus, Auster and Zephyr
Went to a wedding out Salida way.
These four great Winds went all together
To honor BL and April’s day!
Now all four Winds are rarely seen together,
Although they are brothers from ancient stock.
When they go in a group, folks often call ‘em Blow-Hards
(And it’s not much fun to feel that mock)
But the Winds heard the mighty Raft Masters gather,
They were drawn into an aura of community grace
And they knew this Wedding Party could joyfully weather
Any gusts or gales they might toss around the place.
Boreas, the North Wind, hung with the fellas,
With BL and his Groomsmen and his dapper Papa Dan.
He puffed a Cubano and enjoyed a snort of Rye
And comported himself like a proper gentleman.
Auster and Solanus, the East and South-er,
Joined the congregation and mingled with the folk
They frolicked and breezed in the Cottonwood leaves,
And they hooted in their Coke bottles, howling at the joke.
And Zephyr, that whistling, free-wheeling West Wind
Prevailed upon the Bride to join her train.
He flirted in the silks and tugged the ladies’ laces –
And scattered uninvited clouds that might have threatened rain.
Now the wedding-party planners had counted on “sunny,”
Even though it was October in the Colorado hills,
But when all four Winds said YES! to the guest-list
Any nature-savvy party should’ve counted on some thrills.
In the Palace Hotel, the atmosphere
was calm and gracious,
In the picture-perfect way you’d
want your Wedding Day to be.
But out in Riverside Park, where all
the guests and Winds were waiting,
It was a fleece-clad chill-fest,
a pledge-my-troth melee!
Kinda hard to snap a shutter
With the wild hairs whippin’
Even dreadlocks flippin’
Bride’s white tulle flappin’
Bare shoulders tremblin’
Scarf-muffled guest mumblin’
Rental chair tumblin’
Picture-pose leanin’
While those Four Winds were KEENIN’
So moved were they by the ceremony!
As posterity recalls the Anniversary of April
and BL (David) in Salida town
The picture we see is a bit off-center,
Blown hard a-leeward, like the Bride’s lovely gown
With Laura and Denise, loving Mamas of the couple, smiling
And (for dear life!) standing their ground.
An Earth-Mother Cottonwood, heart of the party,
Strains against her roots in the force of the squall
Yet in the couple’s eyes, you can see appreciation
For the blustery guests who started it all.
It takes a special Bride and Groom, true lovers of Nature,
To welcome all the Winds on their nuptial day
To forgive the whooshes and tilts in the photos –
And JOIN the lusty forces of Life at play!
When BL and April page through their Wedding pictures
In every era of their life entwined
They’ll see Boreas, Solanus, Auster and Zephyr
Celebrating hard with everybody they could find.
And surely these two will remember profoundly,
Come-what-may and wherever they be,
How all four Winds bestowed a full-blown BLESSING
On their heart-felt vows – tempestuously!
Catch Jean Ponzi’s enviro-radio shows: Earthworms, Mondays 7-8 p.m. on FM-88 KDHX, and Growing Green St. Louis, Sundays 1-2 p.m. on the Big 550-AM KTRS.