Jerry Chasen's Blog

Not long after we’d met, I gave Mark a book that’d had a profound impact on me–Conversations with God. In the inscription, I asked him to “Take a walk with me.” The December before this Valentines day, our home was flooded and we were forced to vacate it for months while it was restored.

Mark told me that on my birthday, he was approached by someone with a very hard luck story. He thought about what I’d do, and gave the guy a $20 bill. That made me feel so understood, and so appreciated.

I knew this would become a series when I started this poem. I’m very lucky to be partnered with Mark, and there’s no way a storebought card would tell him this the way I could myself.

This magical photograph is of our youngest nephew (who happens to also be our Godchild), playing on the shore at Sanibel island. I “heard” the first and last lines of this poem, and the rest wrote itself as fast as any piece I ever did.

We are godparents to Mark’s youngest nephew. This was written after his bris.