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Simple, Meaningful Marriage Ceremonies in Toronto _____________________________________________________
SUGGESTED READINGS for a WEDDING CEREMONY
(These readings may be used as vows, intentions, blessings, family readings or meditations for any parts of the ceremony)
* * * * *
Old German poem
I am yours. You are mine.
Of this we are certain.
You are lodged in my heart, the small key is lost.
You must stay there forever.
* * * * *
Classical Chinese Poem
I want to be your friend forever and ever
When the hills are all flat
and the rivers run 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.
* * * * *
La Vita Nuova - Dante Alighieri
In that book which is
My memory . . .
On the first page
That is the chapter when
I first met you
Appear the words . . .
Here begins a new life
* * * * *
from the I Ching
When two people are at one
in their inmost hearts
They shatter even the strength of iron, of bronze
And when two people understand each other
in their inmost hearts
Their words are sweet and strong
like the fragrance of orchids.
* * * * *
Love, Plato
Love is the joy of the good,
The wonder of the wise
The amazement of the Gods
* * * * *
El amor nace
con el placer de contemplarse,
se alimenta
con la necesidad de verse,
y concluye
con la imposibilidad
de separarse
Love is born
with the pleasure of looking at each other,
it is fed
with the necessity
of seeing each other,
it is concluded with the impossibility
of ever being apart - Jose Marti
* * * * *
from First Poems, by Rainer Maria Rilke
Understand, I’ll slip quietly
Away from the noisy crowd
When I see the pale
Stars rising, blooming over the oaks
I’ll pursue solitary pathways
Through the pale twilit meadows,
With only this one dream:
You come too.
* * * * *
The Buddha
Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle,
and the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases by being shared.
* * * * *
"Married Love" by Kuan Tao-sheng (1263-1319).
You and I have so much love
That it burns like a fire,
In which we bake a lump of clay
Take a lump of clay, wet it, pat it,
And make an image of me, and an image of you.
Then smash them, crash them, and add a little water.
Break them and remake them into an image of you
And an image of me.
Then in my clay, there's a little of you.
And in your clay, there's a little of me.
And nothing ever shall us sever;
In life we share a single quilt,
And dead, we'll be buried together.
* * * * *
The Sound of Silence by Raymondo Baughan
Here in the space between us and the world
lies human meaning
Into the vast uncertainty we call.
The echoes make our music,
sharp equations which can hold the stars,
and marvelous mythologies we trust.
This may be all we need
to lift our love against indifference and pain.
Here in the space between us and each other
lies all the future
of the fragment of the universe
which is our own.
* * * * *
Dance Me To The End Of Love by Leonard Cohen
Dance Me To The End Of Love by Leonard Cohen
Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on
Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long
We're both of us beneath our love, we're both of us above
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the children who are asking to be born
Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn
Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in
Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove
Dance me to the end of love.
* * * *
MARRIAGE by Carl Sandburg
Live long and laugh loud,
Sent on singing, singing,
Smashed to the heart
Under the ribs
With a terrible love.
Joy always,
Joy everywhere --
Let joy kill you!
Keep away from the little deaths.
* * * * *
I love you, by Carl Sandburg
I love you. I love you for what you are,
but I love you yet more for what you are going to be.
I love you not so much for your realities as for your ideals.
I pray for your desires, that they may be great,
rather than for your satisfactions,
which may be so hazardously little.
A satisfied flower is one whose petals are about to fall.
But the most beautiful rose is one,
hardly more than a bud,
wherein the pangs and ecstasies of desire
are working for larger and finer growth.
Not always shall you be what you are now.
You are going forward toward something great.
I am on the way with you and I love you
* * * * *
Love's Tranquillity, by Sir Philip Sidney
My true love hath my heart, and I have his
By just exchange one for the other given:
I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss,
There never was a better bargain driven:
My true love hath my heart, and I have his.
His heart in me keeps him and me in one,
My heart in him his thought and senses guides:
He loves my heart, for once it was his own,
I cherish his, because in me it bides
* * * * *
(He wishes for the cloths of heaven) by William Butler Yeats
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.
* * * * * *
Letters to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke
For one human being to love another human being
that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been
entrusted to us, the ultimate, the final test and proof,
The work for which all other work is but preparation…
Love is a high inducement for the individual to ripen ..
to become world in himself for the sake of another person
….human love… consists in this: that two solitudes
protect and border and greet each other.
…even between the closest human beings infinite distances
continue to exist, a wonderful living side by side can grow up,
if they succeed in loving the distance between them
which makes it possible for each to see the other
against a wide sky!
Another translation, from "Letters"
The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of [her] solitude, and thus they show
each other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an impossibility, and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in, a mutual consent that robs one party or both parties of their fullest freedom and development. But once the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distances exist, a marvelous living side by side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of
always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky.
* * * * *
Sonnet 116, William Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments; love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no, it is an ever-fixèd mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not wit his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
* * * * *
SONNET XVII, Pablo Neruda
I don’t love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as certain dark things are loved,
therefore, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom and carries
Hidden within itself the light of those flowers,
and thanks to your love, darkly in my body
lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don’t know another way of loving.
but this, in which there is no I or you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest in my hand:
so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.
* * * * * *
two happy lovers make one bread by Pablo Neruda
Two happy lovers make one bread,
a single moon drop in the grass.
Walking, they cast two shadows that flow together;
waking, they leave one sun empty in their bed.
Of all the possible truths, they chose the day;
they held it, not with ropes but with an aroma.
They did not shred the peace; they did not shatter words;
their happiness is a transparent tower.
The air and wine accompany the lovers.
The night delights them with its joyous petals.
They have a right to all the carnations.
Two happy lovers, without an ending, with no death,
they are born, they die, many times while they live:
they have the eternal life of the Natural.
* * * * *
From Adam Bede by 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 all sorrow,
to minister to each other in all pain
to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories
at the moment of the last parting?
* * * * *
When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be by John Keats (1795 - 1821)
When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love;--then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.
* * * * *
From The Book and the Brotherhood by Iris Murdoch
I hereby give myself. I love you. You are the only being whom I can love absolutely with my complete self, with all my flesh and mind and heart. You are my mate, my perfect partner, and I am yours. You must feel this now, as I do. It was a marvel that we ever met. It is some kind of divine luck that we are together now. We must never, never part again.
We are, here in this, necessary beings, like gods. As we look at each other we verify, we know, the perfection of our love, we recognize each other. Here is my life, here if need be, is my death.
* * * * *
by Anthony Powell Davies
When two individuals meet, so do two private worlds. None of our private worlds is big enough for us to live a wholesome life in. We need the wider world of joy and wonder, of purpose and venture, of toil and tears. What are we, any of us, but strangers and sojourners, wandering through the nighttime until we draw together and find the meaning of our lives in one another, dissolving our fears in each other’s courage, making music together and lighting torches to guide us through the dark?
* * * * *
from Captain Corelli’s mandolin, Louis de Bernieres.
Love is a temporary madness; it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should
ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of eternal passion. That is just being in love, which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love
has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.
* * * * *
From A Natural History of Love by Diane Ackerman
Love. What a small word we use for an idea so immense and powerful it has altered the flow of history, calmed monsters, kindled works of art, cheered the forlorn, turned tough guys to mush, consoled the enslaved, driven strong women mad, glorified the humble, fueled national scandals, bankrupted robber barons, and made mincemeat of kings. How can love's spaciousness be conveyed in the narrow confines of one syllable.
Love is an ancient delirium, a desire older than civilization, with taproots stretching deep into dark and mysterious days. The heart is a living museum. In each of its galleries, no matter how narrow or dimly lit, preserved forever like
wondrous diatoms, are our moments of loving and being loved.
* * * * *
A Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
A good relationship has a pattern like a dance, and is built on some of the same rules. The partners do not need to hold on tightly, because they move confidently in the same pattern, intricate but gay, and swift and free, like a country dance of Mozart's. To touch heavily would be to arrest the pattern and freeze the movement, to check the endlessly changing beauty of its unfolding. There is no place here for the possessive clutch, the clinging arm, the heavy hand; only the barest touch in passing. Now arm in arm, now face to face, now back to back - it does not matter which.
Because they know they are partners moving to the same rhythm, creating a pattern together, and being invisibly nourished by it. The joy of such a pattern is not only the joy of creation or the joy of participation; it is also the joy of
living in the moment. Lightness of touch and living in the moment are intertwined.
* * * * *
The Country of Marriage, Wendell Berry
Sometimes our life reminds me
of a forest in which there is a graceful clearing
and in that opening a house,
an orchard and garden,
comfortable shades, and flowers
red and yellow in the sun, a pattern
made in the light for the light to return to.
The forest is mostly dark, its ways
to be made anew day after day, the dark
richer than the light and more blessed,
provided we stay brave
enough to keep on going in.
Our bond is no little economy based on the exchange
of my love and work for yours, so much for so much
of an expendable fund. We don't know what its limits are--
that puts us in the dark. We are more together
than we know, how else could we keep on discovering
we are more together than we thought?
I give you what is unbounded, passing from dark to dark,
containing darkness: a night of rain, an early morning.
I give you the life I have let live for the love of you:
a clump of orange-blooming weeds beside the road,
the young orchard waiting in the snow, our own life
that we have planted in the ground, as I
have planted mine in you.
* * * * * *
Double Love Song by Thomas Whitebread
Open your heart, as if you could,
Let me come into it like fire,
And let me know it as dry wood,
Pretend your being is desire.
Then turn to sandstone, as you can
And let me flow like water through
Your pores toward air, where I began
As if your earth were all of you.
*******
somewhere I have never traveled ee cummings
somewhere i have never traveled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near
your slightest look will easily unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose
or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands
* * * * *
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart) ee cummings
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without It (anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet )i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)
* * * * *
love is more thicker than forget, ee cummings
love is more thicker than forget
more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fail
it is most mad and moonly
and less it shall unbe
than all the sea which only
is deeper than the sea
love is less always than to win
less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin
less littler than forgive
it is more sane and sunly
and more it cannot die
than all the sky which only
is higher than the sky
* * * * *
Love Song, by Williams Carlos Williams
SWEEP the house clean,
hang fresh curtains
in the windows
put on a new dress
and come with me!
The elm is scattering
its little loaves
of sweet smells
from a white sky!
Who shall hear of us
in the time to come?
Let him say there was
a burst of fragrance
from black branches
* * * * * *
Scaffolding by Seamus Heaney
Masons, when they start upon a building,
Are careful to test out the scaffolding;
Make sure that planks won't slip at busy points,
Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints,
And yet all this comes down when the job's done,
Showing off walls of sure and solid stone.
So if, my dear, there sometimes seem to be
Old bridges breaking between you and me
Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall
Confident that we have built our wall.
* * * * *
From “Love is a mix tape” by Rob Sheffield
There is nowhere else in the universe I would rather be at this moment. I could count the places I would NOT rather be. I've always wanted to see New Zealand, but I'd rather be here. The majestic ruins of Machu Pichu? I'd rather be here. A hillside in Cuenca, Spain? Sipping coffee and watching leaves fall? Not even close. There is nowhere else I could imagine wanting to be besides here, in this car, with this girl, on this road, listening to this song. If she breaks my heart, no matter what hell she puts me through, I can say it was worth it, just because of right now. Out the window is a blur and all I can really hear is this girl's hair flapping in the wind, and maybe if we drive fast enough the universe will lose track of us and forget to stick us somewhere else.
* * * * *
Jane Cooper
If you want my apartment, sleep in it
but let's have a clear understanding:
the books are still free agents.
If the rocking chair's arms surround you
they can also let you go,
they can shape the air like a body.
I don't want your rent, I want
a radiance of attention
like the candle's flame when we eat,
I mean a kind of awe
attending the spaces between us---
Not a roof but a field of stars -
* * * * * * *
Because She Would Ask Me Why I Loved Her, By Christopher Brennan
If questioning could make us wise no eyes would ever gaze in eyes;
if all our tale were told in speech no mouths would wander each to each.
Were spirits free from mortal mesh and love not bound in hearts of flesh
no aching breasts would yearn to meet and find their ecstasy complete.
For who is there that lives and knows the secret powers by which he grows?
Were knowledge all, what were our need to thrill and faint and sweetly bleed?
Then seek not, sweet, the If and Why I love you now until I die:
For I must love because I live and life in me is what you give.
*********
It is the union of you and me, Rabindranath Tagore (translated by Indu Dutt)
It is for the union of you and me
That there is light in the sky.
It is for the union of you and me
That the earth is decked in dusky green.
It is for the union of you and me
That night sits motionless with the world in her arms;
Dawn appears opening the eastern door
With sweet murmurs in her voice.
The boat of hope sails along the currents of
Eternity that union,
Flowers of the ages are being gathered together
For its welcoming ritual.
It is for the union of you and me
that this heart of mine, in the garb of a bride,
has proceeded from birth to birth
upon the surface of this ever-turning world
to choose the beloved.
* * * * *
From an old Irish poem
My love is no short year's sentence.
It is grief lodged under the skin,
Strength pushed beyond its bounds;
The four quarters of the world,
The highest point of heaven.
It is a heart breaking or
Battle with a ghost,
Outrunning the sky or
Courting an echo.
So is my love, my passion & my devotion
To him (her) to whom I give them.
* * * * * *
POEMS which can be also used as VOWS
Irish Blessing (couple to each other):
You are the star of each night,
You are the brightness of every morning,
You are the story of each guest,
You are the report of every land.
No evil shall befall you, on hill nor bank,
In field or valley, on mountain or in glen.
Neither above, nor below, neither in sea,
Nor on shore,
In skies above, nor in the depths.
You are the kernel of my heart,
You are the face of my sun,
You are the harp of my music,
You are the crown of my company.
Celtic Traditional Vow 1
I honour your gods
I drink at your well
I bring an undefended heart to our meeting place
I have no cherished outcome
I will not negotiate by withholding
I am not subject to disappointment.
Celtic Traditional Vow 2
You cannot possess me for I belong to myself
But while we both wish it,
I give you that which is mine to give.
You cannot command me for I am a free person.
But I shall serve you in those ways you require
And the honeycomb will taste sweeter coming from my hand.
I pledge to you that yours will be the name I cry aloud in the night.
and the eyes into which I smile in the morning.
I pledge to you the first bite from my meat.
And the first drink from my cup.
I pledge to you my living, and my dying, equally in your care.
And tell no strangers our grievances.
This is my wedding vow to you
This is a marriage of equals.
Traditional Inuit Wedding Vow
You are my husband/wife
My feet shall run because of you.
My feet dance because of you.
My eyes see because of you.
My mind thinks because of you.
And I shall love because of you.
Song of the Open Road, Walt Whitman
Listen, I will be honest with you ...
I do not offer the old smooth prizes
But offer rough new prizes
These are the days that must happen to you:
You shall not heap up what is called riches,
You shall scatter with lavish hand
all that you earn or achieve.
However sweet the laid up stores,
However convenient the dwelling,
you shall not remain there.
However sheltered the port,
However calm the waters,
you shall not anchor there.
However welcome the hospitality that welcomes you,
you are permitted to receive it but a little while.
Afoot and lighthearted, take to the open road
Healthy, free, the world before you
The long brown path before you,
Leading wherever you choose.
Say only to one another: (may be used as a vow)
Camerado, I give you my hand!
I give you my love more precious than money;
I give you myself before preaching and law:
Will you give me yourself?
Will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?"
* * * * * *
BLESSINGS, BENEDICTIONS
* * * * * *
This Marriage, by Rumi
May these vows and this marriage be blessed.
May it be sweet milk,
this marriage, like wine and halvah.
May this marriage offer fruit and shade
like the date palm.
May this marriage be full of laughter,
our every day a day in paradise.
May this marriage be a sign of compassion,
a seal of happiness here and hereafter.
May this marriage have a fair face and a good name,
an omen as welcomes the moon in a clear blue sky.
I am out of words to describe
how spirit mingles in this marriage
from The Twelve Gifts in Marriage by Charlene Costanzo
May you look for what is good in each other.
May you respect each other’s differences.
May you make time each day for moments of play.
Every day, may you be grateful.
May you show that you care when you come and go.
May you choose to love even when you feel unloving.
May you touch tenderly, speak kindly, and listen with attention.
May you be quick to say “I am sorry” as well as “I forgive.”
May life’s sorrows bring you closer together.
May troubles strengthen your commitment.
Again and again, may you renew your dreams.
And may you share your love with the world.
Living happily ever after is not the end of a fairy tale. It is the
common purpose that all life seeks.
APACHE WEDDING BLESSING
May the sun bring you new energies by day;
May the moon softly restore you by night.
May the rain wash away any worries you may have
And the breeze blow new strength into your being.
And all the days of your life,
May you walk gently through the world
And know its beauty.
Now you will feel not the rain, for each will shelter the other.
Now you will feel not cold, for each will warm the other.
Now you will feel not solitude, for each will company the other.
Now you are two persons, but both will lead one life.
When you go to your dwelling to enter into the days of your life,
May your days be good and long upon the earth.
IRISH BLESSING
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 may the hand of a friend always be near.
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 warm rays of sun fall upon your home
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
Celtic Benediction
The peace of the running water to you,
The peace of the flowing air to you,
The peace of the quiet earth to you,
The peace of the shining star to you,
And the love and the care of all of us to you.
* * * * * *
May every blessing and grace be yours
May your love grow stronger and deeper with each passing year.
May joy and delight fill your home
May daily problems not vex you unduly
nor the desire for earthly possessions dominate you
May you have true friends to stay by you in joy and sorrow
And if children bless you, may they return your love
many times over.
With wise and generous hearts
May you help all to come to you in need of comfort
and may you reach a ripe age together
content for having lived a life of goodness and worth. -Gertrude Nelson
Weddings of Toronto.com | SUGGESTED READINGS for a WEDDING CEREMONY (These readings may be used as vows, intentions, blessings, family readings or meditations for any parts of the ceremony) * * * * * Old German poem I am yours. You are mine. Of this we are certain. You are lodged in my heart, the small key is lost. You must stay there forever. * * * * * Classical Chinese Poem I want to be your friend forever and ever When the hills are all flat and the rivers run 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. * * * * * La Vita Nuova - Dante Alighieri In that book which is My memory . . . On the first page That is the chapter when I first met you Appear the words . . . Here begins a new life * * * * * from the I Ching When two people are at one in their inmost hearts They shatter even the strength of iron, of bronze And when two people understand each other in their inmost hearts Their words are sweet and strong like the fragrance of orchids. * * * * * Love, Plato Love is the joy of the good, The wonder of the wise The amazement of the Gods * * * * * El amor nace con el placer de contemplarse, se alimenta con la necesidad de verse, y concluye con la imposibilidad de separarse Love is born with the pleasure of looking at each other, it is fed with the necessity of seeing each other, it is concluded with the impossibility of ever being apart - Jose Marti * * * * * from First Poems, by Rainer Maria Rilke Understand, I’ll slip quietly Away from the noisy crowd When I see the pale Stars rising, blooming over the oaks I’ll pursue solitary pathways Through the pale twilit meadows, With only this one dream: You come too. * * * * * The Buddha Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. * * * * * "Married Love" by Kuan Tao-sheng (1263-1319). You and I have so much love That it burns like a fire, In which we bake a lump of clay Take a lump of clay, wet it, pat it, And make an image of me, and an image of you. Then smash them, crash them, and add a little water. Break them and remake them into an image of you And an image of me. Then in my clay, there's a little of you. And in your clay, there's a little of me. And nothing ever shall us sever; In life we share a single quilt, And dead, we'll be buried together. * * * * * The Sound of Silence by Raymondo Baughan Here in the space between us and the world lies human meaning Into the vast uncertainty we call. The echoes make our music, sharp equations which can hold the stars, and marvelous mythologies we trust. This may be all we need to lift our love against indifference and pain. Here in the space between us and each other lies all the future of the fragment of the universe which is our own. * * * * * Dance Me To The End Of Love by Leonard Cohen Dance Me To The End Of Love by Leonard Cohen Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove Dance me to the end of love Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon Show me slowly what I only know the limits of Dance me to the end of love Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long We're both of us beneath our love, we're both of us above Dance me to the end of love Dance me to the children who are asking to be born Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn Dance me to the end of love Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove Dance me to the end of love. * * * * MARRIAGE by Carl Sandburg Live long and laugh loud, Sent on singing, singing, Smashed to the heart Under the ribs With a terrible love. Joy always, Joy everywhere -- Let joy kill you! Keep away from the little deaths. * * * * * I love you, by Carl Sandburg I love you. I love you for what you are, but I love you yet more for what you are going to be. I love you not so much for your realities as for your ideals. I pray for your desires, that they may be great, rather than for your satisfactions, which may be so hazardously little. A satisfied flower is one whose petals are about to fall. But the most beautiful rose is one, hardly more than a bud, wherein the pangs and ecstasies of desire are working for larger and finer growth. Not always shall you be what you are now. You are going forward toward something great. I am on the way with you and I love you * * * * * Love's Tranquillity, by Sir Philip Sidney My true love hath my heart, and I have his By just exchange one for the other given: I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss, There never was a better bargain driven: My true love hath my heart, and I have his. His heart in me keeps him and me in one, My heart in him his thought and senses guides: He loves my heart, for once it was his own, I cherish his, because in me it bides * * * * * (He wishes for the cloths of heaven) by William Butler Yeats Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams. * * * * * * Letters to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke For one human being to love another human being that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us, the ultimate, the final test and proof, The work for which all other work is but preparation… Love is a high inducement for the individual to ripen .. to become world in himself for the sake of another person ….human love… consists in this: that two solitudes protect and border and greet each other. …even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue to exist, a wonderful living side by side can grow up, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other against a wide sky! Another translation, from "Letters" The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of [her] solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an impossibility, and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in, a mutual consent that robs one party or both parties of their fullest freedom and development. But once the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distances exist, a marvelous living side by side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky. * * * * * Sonnet 116, William Shakespeare Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments; love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O, no, it is an ever-fixèd mark, That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wand'ring bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not wit his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved. * * * * * SONNET XVII, Pablo Neruda I don’t love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz or arrow of carnations that propagate fire: I love you as certain dark things are loved, therefore, between the shadow and the soul. I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom and carries Hidden within itself the light of those flowers, and thanks to your love, darkly in my body lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth. I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I don’t know another way of loving. but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest in my hand: so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close. * * * * * * two happy lovers make one bread by Pablo Neruda Two happy lovers make one bread, a single moon drop in the grass. Walking, they cast two shadows that flow together; waking, they leave one sun empty in their bed. Of all the possible truths, they chose the day; they held it, not with ropes but with an aroma. They did not shred the peace; they did not shatter words; their happiness is a transparent tower. The air and wine accompany the lovers. The night delights them with its joyous petals. They have a right to all the carnations. Two happy lovers, without an ending, with no death, they are born, they die, many times while they live: they have the eternal life of the Natural. * * * * * From Adam Bede by 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 all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting? * * * * * When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be by John Keats (1795 - 1821) When I have fears that I may cease to be Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain, Before high-piled books, in charactery, Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain; When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face, Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance, And think that I may never live to trace Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance; And when I feel, fair creature of an hour, That I shall never look upon thee more, Never have relish in the faery power Of unreflecting love;--then on the shore Of the wide world I stand alone, and think Till love and fame to nothingness do sink. * * * * * From The Book and the Brotherhood by Iris Murdoch I hereby give myself. I love you. You are the only being whom I can love absolutely with my complete self, with all my flesh and mind and heart. You are my mate, my perfect partner, and I am yours. You must feel this now, as I do. It was a marvel that we ever met. It is some kind of divine luck that we are together now. We must never, never part again. We are, here in this, necessary beings, like gods. As we look at each other we verify, we know, the perfection of our love, we recognize each other. Here is my life, here if need be, is my death. * * * * * by Anthony Powell Davies When two individuals meet, so do two private worlds. None of our private worlds is big enough for us to live a wholesome life in. We need the wider world of joy and wonder, of purpose and venture, of toil and tears. What are we, any of us, but strangers and sojourners, wandering through the nighttime until we draw together and find the meaning of our lives in one another, dissolving our fears in each other’s courage, making music together and lighting torches to guide us through the dark? * * * * * from Captain Corelli’s mandolin, Louis de Bernieres. Love is a temporary madness; it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of eternal passion. That is just being in love, which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two. * * * * * From A Natural History of Love by Diane Ackerman Love. What a small word we use for an idea so immense and powerful it has altered the flow of history, calmed monsters, kindled works of art, cheered the forlorn, turned tough guys to mush, consoled the enslaved, driven strong women mad, glorified the humble, fueled national scandals, bankrupted robber barons, and made mincemeat of kings. How can love's spaciousness be conveyed in the narrow confines of one syllable. Love is an ancient delirium, a desire older than civilization, with taproots stretching deep into dark and mysterious days. The heart is a living museum. In each of its galleries, no matter how narrow or dimly lit, preserved forever like wondrous diatoms, are our moments of loving and being loved. * * * * * A Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh A good relationship has a pattern like a dance, and is built on some of the same rules. The partners do not need to hold on tightly, because they move confidently in the same pattern, intricate but gay, and swift and free, like a country dance of Mozart's. To touch heavily would be to arrest the pattern and freeze the movement, to check the endlessly changing beauty of its unfolding. There is no place here for the possessive clutch, the clinging arm, the heavy hand; only the barest touch in passing. Now arm in arm, now face to face, now back to back - it does not matter which. Because they know they are partners moving to the same rhythm, creating a pattern together, and being invisibly nourished by it. The joy of such a pattern is not only the joy of creation or the joy of participation; it is also the joy of living in the moment. Lightness of touch and living in the moment are intertwined. * * * * * The Country of Marriage, Wendell Berry Sometimes our life reminds me of a forest in which there is a graceful clearing and in that opening a house, an orchard and garden, comfortable shades, and flowers red and yellow in the sun, a pattern made in the light for the light to return to. The forest is mostly dark, its ways to be made anew day after day, the dark richer than the light and more blessed, provided we stay brave enough to keep on going in. Our bond is no little economy based on the exchange of my love and work for yours, so much for so much of an expendable fund. We don't know what its limits are-- that puts us in the dark. We are more together than we know, how else could we keep on discovering we are more together than we thought? I give you what is unbounded, passing from dark to dark, containing darkness: a night of rain, an early morning. I give you the life I have let live for the love of you: a clump of orange-blooming weeds beside the road, the young orchard waiting in the snow, our own life that we have planted in the ground, as I have planted mine in you. * * * * * * Double Love Song by Thomas Whitebread Open your heart, as if you could, Let me come into it like fire, And let me know it as dry wood, Pretend your being is desire. Then turn to sandstone, as you can And let me flow like water through Your pores toward air, where I began As if your earth were all of you. ******* somewhere I have never traveled ee cummings somewhere i have never traveled, gladly beyond any experience, your eyes have their silence: in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me, or which i cannot touch because they are too near your slightest look will easily unclose me though i have closed myself as fingers, you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens (touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose or if your wish be to close me, i and my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly, as when the heart of this flower imagines the snow carefully everywhere descending; nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals the power of your intense fragility: whose texture compels me with the color of its countries, rendering death and forever with each breathing (i do not know what it is about you that closes and opens; only something in me understands the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses) nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands * * * * * i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart) ee cummings i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)i am never without It (anywhere i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling) i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet )i want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true) and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide) and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart) * * * * * love is more thicker than forget, ee cummings love is more thicker than forget more thinner than recall more seldom than a wave is wet more frequent than to fail it is most mad and moonly and less it shall unbe than all the sea which only is deeper than the sea love is less always than to win less never than alive less bigger than the least begin less littler than forgive it is more sane and sunly and more it cannot die than all the sky which only is higher than the sky * * * * * Love Song, by Williams Carlos Williams SWEEP the house clean, hang fresh curtains in the windows put on a new dress and come with me! The elm is scattering its little loaves of sweet smells from a white sky! Who shall hear of us in the time to come? Let him say there was a burst of fragrance from black branches * * * * * * Scaffolding by Seamus Heaney Masons, when they start upon a building, Are careful to test out the scaffolding; Make sure that planks won't slip at busy points, Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints, And yet all this comes down when the job's done, Showing off walls of sure and solid stone. So if, my dear, there sometimes seem to be Old bridges breaking between you and me Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall Confident that we have built our wall. * * * * * From “Love is a mix tape” by Rob Sheffield There is nowhere else in the universe I would rather be at this moment. I could count the places I would NOT rather be. I've always wanted to see New Zealand, but I'd rather be here. The majestic ruins of Machu Pichu? I'd rather be here. A hillside in Cuenca, Spain? Sipping coffee and watching leaves fall? Not even close. There is nowhere else I could imagine wanting to be besides here, in this car, with this girl, on this road, listening to this song. If she breaks my heart, no matter what hell she puts me through, I can say it was worth it, just because of right now. Out the window is a blur and all I can really hear is this girl's hair flapping in the wind, and maybe if we drive fast enough the universe will lose track of us and forget to stick us somewhere else. * * * * * Jane Cooper If you want my apartment, sleep in it but let's have a clear understanding: the books are still free agents. If the rocking chair's arms surround you they can also let you go, they can shape the air like a body. I don't want your rent, I want a radiance of attention like the candle's flame when we eat, I mean a kind of awe attending the spaces between us--- Not a roof but a field of stars - * * * * * * * Because She Would Ask Me Why I Loved Her, By Christopher Brennan If questioning could make us wise no eyes would ever gaze in eyes; if all our tale were told in speech no mouths would wander each to each. Were spirits free from mortal mesh and love not bound in hearts of flesh no aching breasts would yearn to meet and find their ecstasy complete. For who is there that lives and knows the secret powers by which he grows? Were knowledge all, what were our need to thrill and faint and sweetly bleed? Then seek not, sweet, the If and Why I love you now until I die: For I must love because I live and life in me is what you give. ********* It is the union of you and me, Rabindranath Tagore (translated by Indu Dutt) It is for the union of you and me That there is light in the sky. It is for the union of you and me That the earth is decked in dusky green. It is for the union of you and me That night sits motionless with the world in her arms; Dawn appears opening the eastern door With sweet murmurs in her voice. The boat of hope sails along the currents of Eternity that union, Flowers of the ages are being gathered together For its welcoming ritual. It is for the union of you and me that this heart of mine, in the garb of a bride, has proceeded from birth to birth upon the surface of this ever-turning world to choose the beloved. * * * * * From an old Irish poem My love is no short year's sentence. It is grief lodged under the skin, Strength pushed beyond its bounds; The four quarters of the world, The highest point of heaven. It is a heart breaking or Battle with a ghost, Outrunning the sky or Courting an echo. So is my love, my passion & my devotion To him (her) to whom I give them. * * * * * * POEMS which can be also used as VOWS Irish Blessing (couple to each other): You are the star of each night, You are the brightness of every morning, You are the story of each guest, You are the report of every land. No evil shall befall you, on hill nor bank, In field or valley, on mountain or in glen. Neither above, nor below, neither in sea, Nor on shore, In skies above, nor in the depths. You are the kernel of my heart, You are the face of my sun, You are the harp of my music, You are the crown of my company. Celtic Traditional Vow 1 I honour your gods I drink at your well I bring an undefended heart to our meeting place I have no cherished outcome I will not negotiate by withholding I am not subject to disappointment. Celtic Traditional Vow 2 You cannot possess me for I belong to myself But while we both wish it, I give you that which is mine to give. You cannot command me for I am a free person. But I shall serve you in those ways you require And the honeycomb will taste sweeter coming from my hand. I pledge to you that yours will be the name I cry aloud in the night. and the eyes into which I smile in the morning. I pledge to you the first bite from my meat. And the first drink from my cup. I pledge to you my living, and my dying, equally in your care. And tell no strangers our grievances. This is my wedding vow to you This is a marriage of equals. Traditional Inuit Wedding Vow You are my husband/wife My feet shall run because of you. My feet dance because of you. My eyes see because of you. My mind thinks because of you. And I shall love because of you. Song of the Open Road, Walt Whitman Listen, I will be honest with you ... I do not offer the old smooth prizes But offer rough new prizes These are the days that must happen to you: You shall not heap up what is called riches, You shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve. However sweet the laid up stores, However convenient the dwelling, you shall not remain there. However sheltered the port, However calm the waters, you shall not anchor there. However welcome the hospitality that welcomes you, you are permitted to receive it but a little while. Afoot and lighthearted, take to the open road Healthy, free, the world before you The long brown path before you, Leading wherever you choose. Say only to one another: (may be used as a vow) Camerado, I give you my hand! I give you my love more precious than money; I give you myself before preaching and law: Will you give me yourself? Will you come travel with me? Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?" * * * * * * BLESSINGS, BENEDICTIONS * * * * * * This Marriage, by Rumi May these vows and this marriage be blessed. May it be sweet milk, this marriage, like wine and halvah. May this marriage offer fruit and shade like the date palm. May this marriage be full of laughter, our every day a day in paradise. May this marriage be a sign of compassion, a seal of happiness here and hereafter. May this marriage have a fair face and a good name, an omen as welcomes the moon in a clear blue sky. I am out of words to describe how spirit mingles in this marriage from The Twelve Gifts in Marriage by Charlene Costanzo May you look for what is good in each other. May you respect each other’s differences. May you make time each day for moments of play. Every day, may you be grateful. May you show that you care when you come and go. May you choose to love even when you feel unloving. May you touch tenderly, speak kindly, and listen with attention. May you be quick to say “I am sorry” as well as “I forgive.” May life’s sorrows bring you closer together. May troubles strengthen your commitment. Again and again, may you renew your dreams. And may you share your love with the world. Living happily ever after is not the end of a fairy tale. It is the common purpose that all life seeks. APACHE WEDDING BLESSING May the sun bring you new energies by day; May the moon softly restore you by night. May the rain wash away any worries you may have And the breeze blow new strength into your being. And all the days of your life, May you walk gently through the world And know its beauty. Now you will feel not the rain, for each will shelter the other. Now you will feel not cold, for each will warm the other. Now you will feel not solitude, for each will company the other. Now you are two persons, but both will lead one life. When you go to your dwelling to enter into the days of your life, May your days be good and long upon the earth. IRISH BLESSING 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 may the hand of a friend always be near. 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 warm rays of sun fall upon your home 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 Celtic Benediction The peace of the running water to you, The peace of the flowing air to you, The peace of the quiet earth to you, The peace of the shining star to you, And the love and the care of all of us to you. * * * * * * May every blessing and grace be yours May your love grow stronger and deeper with each passing year. May joy and delight fill your home May daily problems not vex you unduly nor the desire for earthly possessions dominate you May you have true friends to stay by you in joy and sorrow And if children bless you, may they return your love many times over. With wise and generous hearts May you help all to come to you in need of comfort and may you reach a ripe age together content for having lived a life of goodness and worth. -Gertrude Nelson |