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Poems
May this man and this woman be a blessing and comfort to each other, sharers of each their dreams, consoler to each others sorrows, helpers to each other in all life's vicissitudes. May they encourage each other in what ever they set out to achieve. May they trust each other, trust life and be unafraid. May they love each other and offer love and support to those around them.
May your marriage bring you all of the
exquisite excitement a marriage should bring. And may life grant you also
patience, tolerance, and understanding.
Marriage is not only a commitment between lovers, it is also an agreement
between two friends. Allow each other time to be an individual, respect each
other's wishes as well as their dreams.
(Name) and (Name) nothing is easier than saying words and nothing is harder than
living them day after day after day. What you promise today, must be renewed and
decided again tomorrow, and tomorrow after that and the tomorrow after that.
"Marriage is for more than an exchange of vows. It is the foundation of the
family, mankind's basic unit of society, the hope of the world and the strength
of our country. It is the relationship between ourselves and the generations to
follow."
A marriage which really works is one which works for others. Marriage has both a
private face and a public importance. If we solved all our economic problems and
failed to build loving families, it would profit us nothing, because the family
is the place where the future is created good and full of love—or deformed.
Those who are married live happily ever after the wedding day if they persevere
in the real adventure which is the royal task of creating each other and
creating a more loving world. This is true of every man and every woman
undertaking marriage.
(Name) and (Name), you are about to make promises to one another. Today, these
vows are beautiful words representing even more beautiful intentions. But you
will find that as you
live these vows over the years, investing your time an d your love and your
commitment to one another, the happy times of your life will be twice as joyous,
because there will be someone to share those joy with. And when life gets tough,
it will only be half as bad, because there will be someone by your side to help
carry the burden. For those times when life presents all of us with challenges,
I would like to offer you the serenity prayer to remember: God grant me the
serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, the courage to change the
things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
You are now taking into
your care and keeping the happiness of the one person in all the world whom you
love best. You are adding to your life not only the affection of each other, but
also the companionship and blessing of a deep trust as well. You are agreeing to
share strength, responsibilities and to share love.
George Eliot
What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are
joined for life, to strengthen each other in all labor, to rest on each other in
sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be with each other in silent
unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting?
I should like at this time, to try to speak of some of the things which many of
us wish for the both of you. We wish for you a home, not a place of stone and
wood, but an island of peace, a place from which you will receive strength
and support that stays and carries with you throughout your daily lives. We hope
that your home encompasses the beauty of nature, that has within it the elements
of simplicity, beauty, silence, and color, in concordance with your dreams and
aspirations. We wish for you a home of books, poetry and music, a home with all
the things which represent the highest of both men and women.
Marriage is the most important of all earthly relationships. It should be entered into reverently, thoughtfully and with full understanding of its sacred nature. Marriage is a gift of god, given to comfort the sorrow of life and magnify the joys
Love is always patient and kind, it is never jealous, love is never boastful or conceited, it is never rude or selfish, it does not take offense, and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasures in other people's sins but delights in the truth, it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes. Love does not come to an end.
Marriage is the clasping of hands, the
blending of hearts, the union of two lives as one. Your marriage must stand, not
by the authority of the state nor by the words of the minister, but by the
strength of your love and the power of faith in each other and in God.
It should never be said of either of you that you show more concern for a friend than you do for each other. More kindness, gentleness, and concern needs to be shown in the privacy of your own home than anywhere else. Indeed, your home should be a haven from all the confusion and craziness the world will create. And faith fullness to each other in every way is the primary ingredient that will keep all those aforementioned virtues in order and produce the joy you seek at this altar.
Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods or steepy mountain yields.
And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;
A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;
A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my love.
The shepherds' swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love,
May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.
May God be with you and bless you;
May you see your children's children.
May you be poor in misfortune,
Rich in blessings,
May you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward.
May the road rise to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the warm rays of sun fall upon your home
And may the hand of a friend always be near.
May green be the grass you walk on,
May blue be the skies above you,
May pure be the joys that surround you,
May true be the hearts that love you.
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of
praise on your lips.
When two people are at one
in their inmost hearts,
they shatter even the strength of iron or bronze.
And when two people understand each other
in their inmost hearts,
their words are sweet and strong,
like the fragrance of orchids.
Man and woman are like the earth, that brings forth flowers
in summer, and love, but underneath is rock.
Older than flowers, older than ferns, older than foraminiferae,
older than plasm altogether is the soul underneath.
And when, throughout all the wild chaos of love
slowly a gem forms, in the ancient, once-more-molten rocks
of two human hearts, two ancient rocks,
a man's heart and a woman's,
that is the crystal of peace, the slow hard jewel of trust,
the sapphire of fidelity.
The gem of mutual peace emerging from the wild chaos of love.
You are my husband, you are my wife
My feet shall run because of you
My feet dance because of you
My heart shall beat because of you
My eyes see because of you
My mind thinks because of you
And I shall love, because of you.
Because to the depths of me, I long to love one person,
With all my heart, my soul, my mind, my body...
Because I need a forever friend to trust with the intimacies of
me,
Who won't hold them against me,
Who loves me when I'm unlikable,
Who sees the small child in me, and
Who looks for the divine potential of me...
Because I need to cuddle in the warmth of the night
With someone who thanks God for me,
With someone I feel blessed to hold...
Because marriage means opportunity
To grow in love in friendship...
Because marriage is a discipline
To be added to a list of achievements...
Because marriages do not fail, people fail
When they enter into marriage
Expecting another to make them whole...
Because, knowing this,
I promise myself to take full responsibility
For my spiritual, mental and physical wholeness
I create me,
I take half of the responsibility for my marriage
Together we create our marriage...
Because with this understanding
The possibilities are limitless.
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chilliest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity
It asked a crumb of me.
One recognizes the truth of Saint Exupery's line: Love does not consist in gazing at each other. But in looking outward together in the same direction. For in fact, man and woman are not only looking outward in the same direction, they are working outward. Here one forms ties, roots, a firm base....Here one makes oneself part of the community of men, of human society. Here the bonds of marriage are formed. For marriage, which is always spoken of as a bond, becomes actually, in this stage, many bonds, many strands, of different texture and strength, making up a web that is taut and firm. The web is fashioned of love. Yes, but many kinds of love: romantic love first, then a slow-growing devotion and, playing through these, a constantly rippling companionship. It is made of loyalties, and interdependencies, and shared experiences. It is woven of memories of meetings and conflicts; of triumphs and disappointments. It is a web of communication, a common language, and the acceptance of lack of language too, a knowledge of likes and dislikes, of habits and reactions, both physical and mental. It is a web of instincts and intuitions, and known and unknown exchanges. The web of marriage is made by propinquity, in the day to day living side by side, looking outward and working outward in the same direction. It is woven in space and in time of the substance of life itself.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being an Ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old grief's, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,--I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!--and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
I wonder by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved ? were we not weaned till then ?
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly ?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers' den ?
'Twas so ; but this, all pleasures fancies be;
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee.
And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone;
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown;
Let us possess one world ; each hath one, and is one.
My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres
Without sharp north, without declining west ?
Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one, or thou and I
Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die
Believe me, if all those endearing
young charms,
Which I gaze on so fondly to-day,
Were to change by to-morrow, and fleet in my arms,
Live fairy-gifts fading away,
Thou wouldst still be adored, as this moment thou art,
Let thy loveliness fade as it will,
And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart
Would entwine itself verdantly still.
It is not while beauty and youth are thine own,
And thy cheeks unprofaned by a tear,
That the fervor and faith of a soul may be known,
To which time will but make thee more dear!
No, the heart that has truly loved never forgets,
But as truly loves on to the close,
As the sunflower turns on her god when he sets
The same look which she turned when he rose!
The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever,
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one another's being mingle:-
Why not I with thine?
See! the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
Now sister flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea:-
What are all these kissing's worth,
If thou kiss not me?
WHY, having won her, do I woo?
Because her spirit's vestal grace
Provokes me always to pursue,
But, spirit-like, eludes embrace;
Because her womanhood is such
That, as on court-days subjects kiss
The Queen's hand, yet so near a touch
Affirms no mean familiarness,
Nay, rather marks more fair the height
Which can with safety so neglect
To dread, as lower ladies might,
That grace could meet with disrespect;
Thus she with happy favor feeds
Allegiance from a love so high
That thence no false conceit proceeds
Of difference bridged, or state put by;
Because, although in act and word
As lowly as a wife can be
Her manners, when they call me lord,
Remind me 'tis by courtesy;
Not with her least consent of will,
Which would my proud affection hurt,
But by the noble style that still
Imputes an unattained desert;
Because her gay and lofty brows,
When all is won which hope can ask,
Reflect a light of hopeless snows
That bright in virgin ether bask;
Because, though free of the outer court
I am, this Temple keeps its shrine
Sacred to heaven; because, in short,
She's not and never can be mine.
On Marriage - Gibran
Then Almitra spoke again and said,
"And what of Marriage, master?"
And he answered saying:
You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days.
Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
My Love Is Like A Red, Red
Rose. - Burns
0' my luve's like a red, red
rose,
That's newly sprung in June.
0' my luve's like the melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I,
And I will luve thee still, my Dear,
Till a 'the seas gang dry.
Till a' the seas gang dry, my
Dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun!
And I will luve thee still, my Dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Desiderata
Max Ehrmann (1872-1945)
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in
silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and
ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you
compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for there will
always be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as
well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in
the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for
the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there
is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the
grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of
youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not
distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue &
loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have
a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe
is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever
your labours and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with
your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a
beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy
The Owl and The Pussy Cat ....
Edward Lear.
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea In a beautiful pea-green boat:
They took some honey, and plenty of money Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above, And sang to a small guitar,
"O lovely Pussy, 0 Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!
Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl, How charmingly sweet you sing!
Oh! let us be married; too long we have tarried: But what shall we do for a
ring?"
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the bong-tree grows;
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood,
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.
"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling Your ring?" Said
the Piggy, "I will."
So they took it away, and were married next day By the Turkey who lives on the
hill.
They dined on mince and slices of quince, which they ate with a runcible spoon;
-And hand in hand, on the edge of
the sand, 'They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.
Gather ye Rosebuds While Ye
May - Herrick
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime
You may for ever tarry.
I Love You This Much
(author unknown)
I Love You This Much
Enough to do anything for you,
give my life, my love,
my heart and my soul to you and for you.
Enough to willingly give all of my time, efforts, thoughts, talents,
trust and prayers to you.
Enough to want to protect you, care for you, guide you, hold you,
comfort you, listen to you, and cry to you and with you.
Enough to be completely comfortable with you, act silly around you,
never have to hide anything from you, and be myself with you.
I love you enough to share all of my sentiments,
dreams, goals, fears, hopes, and worries, my entire life with you.
Enough to want the best for you, to wish for your successes,
and to hope for the fulfilment of all your endeavours.
Enough to keep my promises to you
and pledge my loyalty and faithfulness to you.
Enough to cherish your friendship,
adore your personality, respect
your values and see you for who you are.
I love you enough to fight for you,
compromise for you, and sacrifice myself for you if need be.
Enough to miss you incredibly when
we're apart, no matter what length
Enough to believe in our relationship, to stand by it through the worst of
times,
to have faith in our strength as a couple, and to never give up on us.
Enough to spend the rest of my life with you,
be there for you when you need or want me,
and never, ever want to leave you or live without you.
I love you this much.
I Promise ~ Dorothy R.Colgan
I promise to give you the best of myself and ask of you no more than I can give.
I promise to respect you as your own person and to realise that your interests,
desires and needs are no less important than my own.
I promise to share with you my time and attention and to bring you joy, strength
and imagination to our relationship.
I promise to keep myself open to you, to let you see through the window of my
world
into my innermost fears and feelings, secrets and dreams.
I promise to grow along with you, to be willing to face changes in order to keep
our
relationship alive and exciting.
I promise to love you in good times and in bad, with all I have to give and all
i feel inside the only way I know how.
Completely and forever.
