Love is

From 2013 to 2019, J. Anton Davis served as a North Carolina Magistrate Judge in Raleigh, North Carolina. From his ninth-floor courtroom in the towering Wake County Justice Center, he performed nearly 6,000 civil wedding ceremonies. While there are countless stories Davis could share from his tenure as a magistrate judge, Love is focuses on the most memorable aspect of the many ceremonies he officiated: love.

The memories found in this collection of poems are all firsthand accounts of love shared between couples, family, friends, and even strangers, all set in the context of a North Carolina civil wedding ceremony. At a time when the world and the relationships that shape it can feel strained and adversarial, Davis offers a refreshing renewal of hope in this thoughtful depiction of love and marriage in a county courthouse.