Ceremony Readings.. Part Deux

I love words. I love these words.

I will probably include something from the e.e. cummings file. If not the one from the previous post then perhaps this one. We could read it to each other. You know alternating the lines. I kind of only like the parts I italicized though.

i love you much(most beautiful darling)

i love you much(most beautiful darling)

more than anyone on the earth and i
like you better than everything in the sky

-sunlight and singing welcome your coming

although winter may be everywhere

with such a silence and such a darkness

noone can quite begin to guess

(except my life)the true time of year-

and if what calls itself a world should have

the luck to hear such singing(or glimpse such

sunlight as will leap higher than high

through gayer than gayest someone’s heart at your each

nearness)everyone certainly would(my

most beautiful darling)believe in nothing but love

Oh dear! It wouldn't be at all right to chop up the poem. Alas.

On to the next.. on on to the next one. . .

How about making everyone read? We could print this lovely in the program and at the designated time have them all (stand?) and recite it. Or. . .we could pick some readers for each stanza. Perhaps the parents of the bride and groom?

Maybe add a groomsman or a bridesmaid? I'm starting to envision a whole Greek chorus kind of thing. Too much?

Blessing for a Marriage

May your marriage bring you all the exquisite excitements a marriage should bring, and may life grant you also patience, tolerance, and understanding.

May you always need one another - not so much to fill your emptiness as to help you to know your fullness. A mountain needs a valley to be complete; the valley does not make the mountain less, but more; and the valley is more a valley because it has a mountain towering over it. So let it be with you and you.

May you need one another, but not out of weakness.

May you want one another, but not out of lack.

May you entice one another, but not compel one another.

May you embrace one another, but not out encircle one another.

May you succeed in all important ways with one another, and not fail in the little graces.

May you look for things to praise, often say, "I love you!" and take no notice of small faults.

If you have quarrels that push you apart, may both of you hope to have good sense enough to take the first step back.

May you enter into the mystery which is the awareness of one another's presence - no more physical than spiritual, warm and near when you are side by side, and warm and near when you are in separate rooms or even distant cities.

May you have happiness, and may you find it making one another happy.

May you have love, and may you find it loving one another!

We wouldn't be us if we only had serious readings. I mean really. Another hot contender is the following. I would need a sufficiently dramatic and emotive reader for this. I could have auditions!

Falling in Love is Like Owning a Dog 

by Taylor Mali

First of all, it’s a big responsibility,
especially in a city like New York.
So think long and hard before deciding on love.
On the other hand, love gives you a sense of security:
when you’re walking down the street late at night
and you have a leash on love
ain’t no one going to mess with you.

Love doesn’t like being left alone for long.
But come home and love is always happy to see you.
It may break a few things accidentally in its passion for life,
but you can never be mad at love for long.

Is love good all the time?
No! No! Love can be bad. Bad, love, bad! Very bad love.

Sometimes love just wants to go for a nice long walk.
It runs you around the block and leaves you panting.
It pulls you in several different directions at once,
or winds around and around you
until you’re all wound up and can’t move.

But love makes you meet people wherever you go.
People who have nothing in common but love
stop and talk to each other on the street.

Throw things away and love will bring them back,
again, and again, and again.
But most of all, love needs love, lots of it.
And in return, love loves you and never stops.

 

The wee wittle pup

 And maybe I want to include that last reading as a sort of nod to my dog-dog. Isn't he cute?