WEDDING READING: Rest Your Wings When They Are Weary

…..To a Butterfly by William Wordsworth

I’ve watched you now a full half-hour;
Self-poised upon that yellow flower
And, little Butterfly! indeed
I know not if you sleep or feed.
How motionless!–not frozen seas
More motionless! and then
What joy awaits you, when the breeze
Hath found you out among the trees,
And calls you forth again!

This plot of orchard-ground is ours;
My trees they are, my Sister’s flowers;
Here rest your wings when they are weary;
Here lodge as in a sanctuary!
Come often to us, fear no wrong;
Sit near us on the bough!
We’ll talk of sunshine and of song,
And summer days, when we were young;
Sweet childish days, that were as long
As twenty days are now.

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WEDDING READING: The Sapphire of Fidelity

Fidelity by D.H. Lawrence

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.

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WEDDING READING: Between the Shadow and the Soul

Jack-in-the-Pulpit No. IV, 1930 by Georgia O’Keeffe

Pablo Neruda, excerpt from 100 Love Sonnets

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz, or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off. I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers; thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance, risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride; so I love you because I know no other way than this: Where “I” does not exist, nor “You”, so close that your hand on my chest is my hand, so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

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WEDDING READING: Bad Habits

Not really appropriate for my fiancé and I as we gave up cigarettes together the day we got engaged. Still its a sweet poem.

Giving Up Smoking by Wendy Cope

There’s not a Shakespeare’s sonnet
nor a Beethoven quartet
that’s easier to like than you
nor harder to forget
You think it sounds extravagant
I haven’t finished yet
I like you more than I would like
to have a cigarette

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WEDDING READING: For The Ways in Which We’re Similar, And Those in Which We’re Worlds Apart

I Love You by Author unknown

I love you
For the kindness in your eyes
And the warmth in your voice,
For the honesty of your words
And the silence of your smile;
For the ways in which we’re similar,
And those in which we’re worlds apart.
For the openness of your understanding
And the acceptance of your heart;
For the tenderness of your touch
And the strength of your commitment,
For your sense of humour
And your seriousness of purpose;
For a thousand small reasons,
And one most important of all:
Simply because you are you.
In all of creation you are the one whom I cherish most,
The one with whom I hope to share my life –
Its joys, its sorrows, its accomplishments, its challenges –
While building our dreams together and growing everyday
In the love that makes us one.

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