When we meet for the first time, I'll provide you with a large selection of readings and vows for possible inclusion in your ceremony. Meanwhile, why not relax for a moment and savor a small sampling?
The Yüeh-Fu
I want to be your friend forever and ever. When the hills are all flat and the rivers are all dry, when the trees blossom in winter and the snow falls in summer, when heaven and earth mix – not till then will I part from you. ~ From the translation by Arthur Waley
A Small Contained Fire
She leads me down a hundred little paths into a riot of sound and color with water splashing and falling around us. Our small fire throws sparks into the branches over head. Above us a forest of green and yellow haloes her Picasso face. A breeze caught leaf, I tremble. Her bubbling laughter begins. We are together in the moment With every path and color Each flaming spark briefly understood. ~ Dagmar Jill Spisak; in Wanting Women - An Anthology of Erotic Lesbian Poetry; edited by Jan Hardy; Sidewalk Revolution Press; 1990
From All For Love
Witness ye days and nights, and all ye hours That danced away with dawn upon your feet, As all your business were to count my passion. One day passed by and nothing saw but love; Another came, and still ‘t was only love; The suns were wearied out with looking on, And I, untired with loving, I saw you every day, and all the day, And every day was still but as the first; So eager was I to see you more. ~ John Dryden (1631–1700)
The Sun Never Says
Even After All this time The sun never says to the earth
“You owe Me.”
Look What happens With a love like that,
It lights the Whole Sky. ~ Hafiz; in The Gift - Poems by Hafiz, the Great Sufi Master; trans. by Daniel Ladinsky; Penguin Compass; 1999
A Dedication to My Wife
To whom I owe the leaping delight That quickens my senses in our wakingtime And the rhythm that governs the repose of our sleepingtime, the breathing in unison.
Of lovers whose bodies smell of each other Who think the same thoughts without need of speech, And babble the same speech without need of meaning...
No peevish winter wind shall chill No sullen tropic sun shall wither The roses in the rose-garden which is ours and ours only
But this dedication is for others to read: These are private words addressed to you in public. ~ T.S. Eliot
La Reina
Yo te he nombrado reina. Hay más altas que tú, más altas. Hay más puras que tú, más puras. Hay más bellas que tú, hay más bellas.
Pero tú eres la reina.
Cuando vas por las calles nadie te reconoce. Nadie ve tu corona de cristal, nadie mira la alfombra de oro rojo que pisas cuando pasas, la alfombra que no existe.
Y cuando asomas suenan todos los ríos en mi cuerpo, sacuden el cielo las campanas, y un himno llena el mundo.
Sólo tú y yo, sólo tú y yo, amor mío, lo escuchamos. ~ Pablo Neruda
On Children
Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let our bending in the archer's hand be for gladness; For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable. ~ Kahlil Gibran
Humble Living
Humble living does not diminish. It fills. Going back to a simpler self gives wisdom.
When a man makes up a story for his child he becomes a father and a child together, listening. ~ Jelaluddin Rumi; in The Essential Rumi;translated by Coleman Barks; Harper San Francisco; 1995
You
You have such a nice look on your face when I look at it. I admire it very much. And you are very warm and nice to stay with often. I think you are the nicest person to stay with. When you are not here my brain goes off and on thinking of you. But another time I didn’t because I was so busy I couldn’t think of you. But when I am through with it I can. I am sure it takes a long time to do that work. Who else should I think of but you? When I’ve had enough of work I always take a break to think of you. ~ John Kyriakis, age 7; in Journeys – Prose by Children of the English Speaking World; Collected by Richard Lewis; Simon & Schuster; 1969
It's Time
It’s time to clothe my dreams in reality, To crate a home for wanderers Who cannot bow before the traditions of a single-family dwelling And a fenced-in yard. Who look beyond marriage and blood To gather brothers and sisters tied by more than custom and umbilical cords. Generous minds and loving hearts, laughing eyes and simple tastes, Who know that serenity at sunrise and peace at sunset Are worth more than the treasures of kings and IRA security. ~ James Kavanaugh; in From Loneliness to Love; Harper & Row; 1986
