Here's to Chey and Corey
Here's to Chey and Cory!*
To a long and happy life
In an Eden of their making
As a husband and a wife.
Here's to Chey and Cory!
To the passion and the will
That has brought them here together:
May it long sustain them still!
Here's to Chey and Cory!
And to Adria - all three!
And to the grace and courage
That creates a family.
May they love each other
With a love that binds them fast
To the things in life that matter
And the ecstasies that last.
*Please feel free to change these names and to cut the third verse, if appropriate.
I Am the Happiest I've Ever Been
I am the happiest I've ever been.
My loneliness will be forever gone.
When you're away, my empty feelings spin,
But after this, I'll always be at home.
You're the only person in the world
From whom I cannot stand to be apart.
But now in your devotion I'll be curled,
Just as you'll take shelter in my heart.
And so we two create a separate thing
In which we dwell mystically as one.
Neither you nor I will solo sing
Once this strange new harmony's begun.
How sweet to join with you in this new life,
Not only as myself, but as your wife.
I Do Not See You Often with My Eyes
I do not see you often with my eyes,
But often you are with me in my heart.
We rarely speak, but there are deeper ties
That keep us close while we must be apart.
Friendships don't depend on sights and sounds,
But on the mysteries of need and grace.
You're with me always, unrestrained by bounds,
In some sweet field more permanent than place.
And so your marriage is a widespread glory,
Shining on a world of more than two.
All the characters in your life story
Share the happiness that's come to you.
No love but must with all love intertwine:
The joy between you two is also mine.
I Never Thought I Ever Would Get Married
I never thought I ever would get married.
I wanted no restraint upon my will.
But like the wind I wanted to be carried
Wherever wish might take me, yearning still.
And then I fell in love with you, and found
A rock upon which I might build a home,
A place both to and for which I was bound,
So bountiful I had no need to roam.
Freedom cannot be except by choosing,
And choice, if choice it be, of need constrains.
And joy, once had, becomes, for fear of losing,
A horse one rides with firm grip on the reins.
Thus my choice to love you as your wife
Is freely made, yet made for all my life.
Jesse and Tiffany Married Quite Young
Jesse and Tiffany married quite young,
Each to the other a passionate friend.
Some say such early love doesn't last long;
Some say such faith will win out in the end.
Early or late, love is ever the same:
A joy in the joy of another; an art
Naïve yet mature; and a will to sustain,
Despite one's own demons, the dreams of the heart.
To Jesse and Tiffany, then, for a life
In which love is the song that's most frequently heard,
For the music that plays in a husband and wife
Finds no beauty without the sweet sound of one word.
All of your pleasure and all of your pain
Now are joined in a moment that won't come again
Yet will sing through your years like a soft summer wind.
Joy Is in the Simple Things
Joy is in the simple things: touching,
Embracing, chattering on for hours about nothing,
Sure of your place within another's heart.
Simple things: like coming home knowing
Exactly where the treasure lies; like being
At ease with what you do and who you are;
Needing what you already have; accepting,
Desiring what you have been given; feeling
The gratitude of someone who is loved;
Investing goodness instead of money; giving
For the pleasure of giving pleasure; seeing
Fortune come to take you in its arms.
All this joy is yours for the price of loving,
Not only well but long, days of willing,
Years and years of wise and patient love.
Love Is Far More Various than Race
Love is far more various than race.
It goes much deeper than a person's skin.
It reaches to the heart, which is the same
In all the human race. It is the name
Of a hundred thousand feelings held within,
Yearning to be consumed in an embrace.
How does one particular embrace
Become more intimate than one's own name?
How of all the humans in this race
Do we find the one whose spirit is the same?
Of course we love to touch our lover's skin,
But what love touches is the soul within.
In marriage we must build one home within
Two hearts, one world in an embrace.
What matters is the will and not the race,
The choice to love what lies beneath the skin.
In every love the choice is just the same;
Without it, love is nothing but a name.
How do we make love more than just a name?
How do we not tire of the skin
We touch every day? In the race
To succeed, how do we keep the embrace
From smothering the passion still within?
How do we make our days not all the same?
Love is the decision to embrace
One body, one soul, one universe, one name.
To give up all we are and have within
And share the world beneath another's skin.
Once we do, the world is not the same:
The love two share enriches the whole race.
This is how love intersects with race:
Humanity is held in your embrace.
Your love will never leave the world the same:
When it looks for peace, it calls your name.
Do not fear the politics of skin:
Choose love each day, and joy will reign within.
Within your love is all you need embrace.
Love caresses skin and values race.
Two in name, you are in love the same. |
Hold My Hand and I'm Yours
Hold my hand and I'm yours,
And your heart will stay close to mine,
For I know the sun must rise with the dawn,
And at night the stars must shine.
And the wind must wander the ocean
And sing with the waves of the sea;
Just so, I know, I'll be by your side,
And you will be wedded to me.
And you will be wedded to me, my love,
And I will be wedded to you;
For I know the tide must turn with the moon,
And the spring must return ever new.
And the sky must weep that the hillsides
May laugh in the green of their joy;
And the leaves must turn red, brown, and gold
That the earth might their riches employ.
And love like a mad, swollen hunger,
And love like an unending song,
And love like the silent pull of the Earth
Shall be with us all our lives long, my love,
Shall be with us all our lives long.
I Can't Believe I'm Marrying/ My Grandma's Paperboy
I can't believe I'm marrying
My grandma's paperboy!
She said that you were "dreamy"
And the sort I would enjoy.
My grandma! Well, I humored her
And took a look at you,
And saw, those many years ago,
That what she said was true.
But not so fast, because we lived
A continent apart,
And were too young to comprehend
The wisdom of the heart.
We needed time to grow into
The truth that we had seen,
And let some others stampede through
The years that came between.
But Grandma always said that you
Were just the one for me,
And now we are all gathered here
To publicly agree!
How often can we say that love
Was truly at first sight?
But since I first laid eyes on you,
I've known Grandma was right!
I Wish My Grandmother Were Here with Us
I wish my grandmother were here with us
To see and celebrate this happy day.
I have her in the center of my heart
Just like this special rose in my bouquet.
Whoever catches this, please pass it on
To someone who is part of all you see,
To someone who has sculpted you with love,
Who means as much to you, as she to me.
In Memory
We wish that [name] could be with us
This very special day,
'Cause he [or she] was like a rush of sun
Before he went away.
We light this candle so that we
Might bring him here awhile,
As we remember his bright flame,
His laughter and his smile.
We wish that he could share with us
The happiness we feel,
'Cause knowing that he knew our joy
Would make it all more real.
But even though he's not with us,
His presence is still strong,
'Cause in his heart we'll always find
The love for which we long.
Note: If you don't want to have a candle-lighting ceremony, simply leave out the second verse. Also feel free to change the poem to the plural ("We wish our parents were with us," "We wish our loved ones were with us," etc.).
Love Can Be like Lightning
Love can be like lightning: all of a sudden
Electric shock goes tingling to the toes.
In some, however, it can come quite slowly,
Spilling over sandbags as it grows.
However love first shows itself, a marriage
Alters all its labyrinthine ways:
Seismic shifts deep down restructure mountains;
Homes jiggle as some expectation sways.
All you have and are is now together.
Love shapes not just your feelings but your lives.
Each must choose each day to love the other,
Needing more than life what love decides.
Marriage Is a Letting Go
Marriage is a letting go,
A plunge into the deep.
No one need the currents fear
Nor hesitate to leap.
You may your spirits keep.
More is gained by giving up
And less by taking in.
Remember that to dwell in joy
You must make room within.
Marriage Is the Union of
Marriage is the union of
A greater sum than two in love.
Relatives are made by rites
Relating in-laws to delights.
In bringing families together,
A million lives are changed forever.
Go then in joy, yourselves to please:
Each love shapes many destinies.
No Matter How We Have Fought, We Will Always Be Sisters
No matter how we have fought, we will always be sisters.
Neither marriage nor distance nor children will change
The frictional fondness, part balm and part blisters,
No dawn can diminish nor passion make strange.
Like two trees with their wrestling roots underground,
Fighting for sun while restraining the wind,
By close and protracted proximity bound,
We've been shaped by a force that no fate can rescind.
And so it's with undaunted pleasure that I
Bid farewell to a part of myself, for I know
That beyond the illusions of what, when, and why,
We'll be together wherever we go. |
