Nothing Is More Mystical than Marriage
Nothing is more mystical than marriage.
In whose eyes do we join such separate souls?
Might we not our private domains damage,
Having long been shaped by different roles?
All we are is joined this day together;
No particle of us is left behind.
Do not imagine two joined by a tether:
However magically, we are combined.
Even so, this marvelous creation,
Far greater than its separate, mundane parts,
Must take its nourishment from our relation,
Having no provider but our hearts.
Each day through doors unseen our spirits move,
Replenishing its empty shelves with love.
Our Ages Are Quite Different
Our ages are quite different, but
We're siblings nonetheless,
And on your wedding day I feel
A strong, bright tenderness.
There is a hollow in my heart
That you will always fill.
No matter who or where you are,
Your place remains there still.
And now, though you begin anew,
A husband with a wife,
Know my pride and hope and love
Are yours throughout your life.
Regarding Marriage: Whose Idea Was This
Regarding marriage: Whose idea was this?
Isn't each poor shimmering star alone?
Can a nimble munchkin alter at the altar
His/her belief that his/her soul is his/her own?
Is a former frog to die in bit and halter,
Ever disenchanted with a kiss?
A star spins slowly through a field of bliss,
No motion save what does all motion alter,
Dependent on the love of every stone.
Just so are we the music of a psalter
Unknowing, moved by melodies we miss.
Didn't the maid move blindly towards that kiss?
Yet happily they wed, as is well known.
Some People Seem Just Made for Early Marriage
Some people seem just made for early marriage:
Like a fertile field they know their fate.
Life comes calling for them in a carriage
And takes them to the ornamental gate.
There they find their pleasure, rich with love,
A place they prune and water till it glows,
And there they dwell till death and never move,
At least that seems the way it often goes.
Actually, such love is dear and rare;
Not many can sustain it for so long.
The two of you, however, seem to bear
The marks of joy that to those few belong.
Cross over, then, into that chosen place
Where love rules all, and all is full of grace.
The Vows I Take Will Be Forever
The vows I take will be forever:
I'll love you all my life.
There's no part way, no holding back
Once we are man and wife.
The choice is made, and now I swim
In a far different sea,
The shores of which are bright green hills
Raised up for you and me.
Our love is like a mountainside
Awash in lovely flowers:
It is our home, our solid rock,
Where all bright things are ours.
And though of need we often must
Spend our days apart,
Our love will always be with us,
Held within the heart.
I feel it now, so strong and free,
So part of every breath
That it must live--I swear it will!--
Even after death.
There Is a Love So Certain
There is a love so certain
It can underwrite all fears;
A passion so enduring
It abides beneath the years;
A yearning so consuming
It's consumed by its own will
To yearn if need forever
For the one its need might still.
How beautiful the rapture
That sustains those long apart!
The joyful inner union
Of the undivided heart.
How sweet yet sad the music
That conveys such loyalty!
The devastated grace
Of the hope of love to be.
And now the mystic moment
Has arrived, and the reward
For all that time of waiting
Shall be gathered in a word.
And life with utter longing
Shall let down its golden hair
That these two faithful lovers
Find at last their pleasure there.
This Is the Time for Thanking Both of You
This is the time for thanking both of you:
Heaven seems nearby, our hearts are full.
All the days and nights of patient love,
Needing rest, the endless push and pull,
Kisses, wisdom, kindness--all on cue!
Years have turned, and now our time is due:
Other lives will be our tongue and groove.
Underneath's your love, still warm as wool.
To Be a Child at a Parent's Wedding
To be a child at a parent's wedding
Is strange, for there's a hint of darkness there.
The past stands just offshore, although we're heading
Inland into cool, fresh mountain air.
The love you two have found is my love also;
Your happiness this day is also mine.
Where your heart leads you, mine will also follow
As more than two lives in this act combine.
So like a sun that burns off morning mist,
Or like a rainbow gracing a blue sky,
Or like the weeping of the newly blessed,
Or like a deep-felt truth that cannot lie,
This moment is far more than we can be,
Joining you to you, and then to me. |
On Your Wedding Day, as You Trade Vows
On your wedding day, as you trade vows,
No ordinary moment hurries by.
You partake, as far as time allows,
Of something more than time and Earth and sky:
Unknowable, invisible, yet there;
Resplendent to the heart if not the face;
More than both of you, yet less than air;
A transcendental act conferring grace.
Reason might say, How can this be true?
Return then to the heart, for this is love.
In making vows, you make one out of two,
A mystery beyond what words can prove.
Go then as one flesh, one home, one heart:
Each still a whole, yet also now a part.
Please Leave for Us More than a Name
Please leave for us more than a name:
A word of love or hope or cheer,
Some sweet sign your heart was here . . .
If not, we thank you just the same.
Recently You Were Just Two Feet High
Recently you were just two feet high,
Reaching out with pudgy little arms,
Going for the bright blue, brand new sky,
Intoxicated with life's purest charms.
Once again you enter a world new,
Tingling with the innocence of joy;
Once again the sky's a brilliant blue,
Not far beyond the reach of girl or boy.
Do not forget that burning, helpless passion.
Child or adult, it lies within.
Although you may get lost in work and fashion,
Returning home lets you begin again.
In you today there is the purest love.
Swift though the years, that time shall not remove.
Simple Things Must Have the Brightest Glow
Simple things must have the brightest glow:
After all the passion, there is love.
Rest easy in the troubles and the years:
All these pass, and what remains is love.
How simple to step out of self-concern,
Shorn of all the boundaries and the fears,
Hoping for the answer we all know:
A beauty we must constantly relearn.
Until we love, we cannot shed real tears,
Nor can we feel our hearts with pleasure move.
Thank You for Coming and Sharing Our Day
Thank you for coming and sharing our day.
Hope comes from loving, and loving from friends.
After you left, we were left with the stars,
Near stunned by the grace with which such a day ends.
Know that your presence helped fashion our way.
You are the fields on which marriage depends,
Opening vistas no heart can convey,
Unloosing sweet music that now will be ours.
The Vows You Have Just Taken, Pledging Love
The vows you have just taken, pledging love,
Mean far more than words can ever mean.
May their gentle spirit in you move.
May your years fulfill the beauty of
The feelings whose expression we've just seen,
The vows you have just taken, pledging love.
And may you always put these vows above
The things that make life smaller and more mean.
May their gentle spirit in you move.
May your children know the power of
These words to shape a world that's sane and clean,
These vows you have just taken, pledging love.
And if some day there is a need to prove
The strength of will that from these words you glean,
May their gentle spirit in you move.
Let no fear or pain your love remove,
Nor shallow, selfish hope your true joy screen.
Let the vows you've taken, pledging love,
In their awesome grace within you move.
These Seeds Are Emblematic of Our Love
These seeds are emblematic of our love,
Here as thanks for sharing this sweet day.
As our love grows, so some of these seeds may,
Now planted in your homes, your own hearts move.
Know we need your love, as you need ours.
You and we, like plants, make our own air.
Only mutually can we bear flowers,
Unleashing all the beauty that is there.
This Gift
This gift is but a token of
Our wish for you: a life of love.
This Is the Second Marriage for Us Both
This is a second marriage for us both,
And yet we are the soul mates of our lives.
Sometimes it's a while till love arrives,
Though we may watch it sail along the coast.
Sometimes we fail to understand that pain
Can be a journey to a sunlit shore.
We never know what suffering is for,
Or when we lose, what treasures we might gain.
And so I'm grateful now that I am free
To join my life with yours. I would not change
One moment of my past, or rearrange
The shining chain that brings your love to me.
This Moment Is a Pedestal
This moment is a pedestal
On which I stand to say
What normally I hold within
The sanctum of my heart.
And so it is impossible
For what I feel today
To make it into words without
The agency of art.
I love you, and I've loved you since
Before I knew of love.
And so your happiness to me
Is like a set of wings.
I follow from the mountaintops
And watch you as you move
Into the lifelong mystery
That whispers as it sings.
Ah, brother! Now, and sister, too!*
What worlds you will explore!
What long adventure will go on
With you as man and wife!
And I will cherish both of you
Enchanted on the shore,
And dance within at every joy
That blesses your new life.
*Feel free to reverse the order. |
