Poems are very personal, I invite you to select one of these or to submit your favorite.
To Love is Not to Possess by James Kavanaugh
To love is not to possess,
To own or imprison,
Nor to lose one's self in another.
Love is to join and separate,
To walk alone and together,
To find a laughing freedom
That lonely isolation does not permit.
It is finally to be able
To be who we really are
No longer clinging in childish dependency
Nor docilely living separate lives in silence,
It is to be perfectly one's self
And perfectly joined in permanent commitment
To another--and to one's inner self.
Love only endures when it moves like waves,
Receding and returning gently or passionately,
Or moving lovingly like the tide
In the moon's own predictable harmony,
Because finally, despite a child's scars
Or an adult's deepest wounds,
They are openly free to be
Who they really are--and always secretly were,
In the very core of their being
Where true and lasting love can alone abide.
A Sacred Flame
True love is a sacred flame
That burns eternally,
And none can dim its special glow
Or change its destiny.
True love speaks in tender tones
And hears with gentle ear,
True love gives with open heart
And true love conquers fear.
True love makes no harsh demands
It neither rules nor binds,
And true love holds with gentle hands
The hearts that it entwines.
William Blake
Love and harmony combine,
And round our souls entwine
While thy branches mix with mine,
And our roots together join.
Joys upon our branches sit,
Chirping loud and singing sweet;
Like gentle streams beneath our feet
Innocence and virtue meet.
There she sits and feeds her young,
Sweet I hear her mournful songs;
And they lovely leaves among,
There is love, I hear his tongue.
There his charming next doth lay,
There he sleeps the night away;
There he sports along the day,
And doth among our branches play.
I offer a reading of the Eskimo Love Song
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.
Loving You
If the sun refused to shine,
I would still be loving you.
If the mountains should crumble to the sea,
there would still be you and me.
Kind woman,
I give you my all,
Kind woman, nothing more.
Little drops of rain whisper of the pain,
tears of loves lost...
in the days gone by.
But my love is strong,
with you there is no wrong,
together we shall go until we die.
My, my, my.
Inspiration's what you are to me,
inspiration, look... see.
And so today,
my world it smiles,
your hand in mine,
we walk the miles,
Thanks to you it will be done,
for you to me are the only one.
Happiness, no more be sad,
happiness....I'm glad.
If the sun refused to shine,
I would still be loving you.
If the mountains should crumble to the sea,
there would still be you and me.
The Master Speed by Robert Frost
No speed of wind or water rushing by
But you have speed far greater.
You can climb
Back up a stream
of radiance to the sky,
And back through history
up the stream of time.
And you were given this swiftness, not for haste
Nor chiefly that you may go where you will,
But in the rush of everything to waste,
That you may have the power
of standing still-Off any still or moving thing you say.
Two such as you
with such a master speed
Cannot be parted nor
be swept away
From one another
once you are agreed
That life is only life
forevermore
Together wing to wing
and oar to oar
I Was Brought to My Senses by Gordon Sumner
Alone with my thoughts this evening
I walked on the banks of Tyne
I wondered how I could win you
Or if I could make you mine
The wind it was so insistent
With tales of a stormy south
But when I spied two birds in a sycamore tree
There came a dryness in my mouth
For then without rhyme or reason
The two birds did rise up to fly
And where the two birds were flying
I swear I saw you and I
I walked out this morning
It was like a veil had been removed
from before my eyes
For the first time I saw the work of heaven
In the line where the hills
had been married to the sky
And all around me
Every blade of singing grass
Was calling out your name
And that our love would always last
And inside every turning leaf
Is the pattern of an older tree
The shape of our future
The shape of all our history
And out of the confusion
Where the river meets the sea
Came things I'd never seen
I was brought to my senses
I was blind but now that I can see
Every signpost in nature
Said you belong to me.
To Love is Not to Possess by James Kavanaugh
To love is not to possess,
To own or imprison,
Nor to lose one's self in another.
Love is to join and separate,
To walk alone and together,
To find a laughing freedom
That lonely isolation does not permit.
It is finally to be able
To be who we really are
No longer clinging in childish dependency
Nor docilely living separate lives in silence,
It is to be perfectly one's self
And perfectly joined in permanent commitment
To another--and to one's inner self.
Love only endures when it moves like waves,
Receding and returning gently or passionately,
Or moving lovingly like the tide
In the moon's own predictable harmony,
Because finally, despite a child's scars
Or an adult's deepest wounds,
They are openly free to be
Who they really are--and always secretly were,
In the very core of their being
Where true and lasting love can alone abide.
A Sacred Flame
True love is a sacred flame
That burns eternally,
And none can dim its special glow
Or change its destiny.
True love speaks in tender tones
And hears with gentle ear,
True love gives with open heart
And true love conquers fear.
True love makes no harsh demands
It neither rules nor binds,
And true love holds with gentle hands
The hearts that it entwines.
William Blake
Love and harmony combine,
And round our souls entwine
While thy branches mix with mine,
And our roots together join.
Joys upon our branches sit,
Chirping loud and singing sweet;
Like gentle streams beneath our feet
Innocence and virtue meet.
There she sits and feeds her young,
Sweet I hear her mournful songs;
And they lovely leaves among,
There is love, I hear his tongue.
There his charming next doth lay,
There he sleeps the night away;
There he sports along the day,
And doth among our branches play.
I offer a reading of the Eskimo Love Song
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.
Loving You
If the sun refused to shine,
I would still be loving you.
If the mountains should crumble to the sea,
there would still be you and me.
Kind woman,
I give you my all,
Kind woman, nothing more.
Little drops of rain whisper of the pain,
tears of loves lost...
in the days gone by.
But my love is strong,
with you there is no wrong,
together we shall go until we die.
My, my, my.
Inspiration's what you are to me,
inspiration, look... see.
And so today,
my world it smiles,
your hand in mine,
we walk the miles,
Thanks to you it will be done,
for you to me are the only one.
Happiness, no more be sad,
happiness....I'm glad.
If the sun refused to shine,
I would still be loving you.
If the mountains should crumble to the sea,
there would still be you and me.
The Master Speed by Robert Frost
No speed of wind or water rushing by
But you have speed far greater.
You can climb
Back up a stream
of radiance to the sky,
And back through history
up the stream of time.
And you were given this swiftness, not for haste
Nor chiefly that you may go where you will,
But in the rush of everything to waste,
That you may have the power
of standing still-Off any still or moving thing you say.
Two such as you
with such a master speed
Cannot be parted nor
be swept away
From one another
once you are agreed
That life is only life
forevermore
Together wing to wing
and oar to oar
I Was Brought to My Senses by Gordon Sumner
Alone with my thoughts this evening
I walked on the banks of Tyne
I wondered how I could win you
Or if I could make you mine
The wind it was so insistent
With tales of a stormy south
But when I spied two birds in a sycamore tree
There came a dryness in my mouth
For then without rhyme or reason
The two birds did rise up to fly
And where the two birds were flying
I swear I saw you and I
I walked out this morning
It was like a veil had been removed
from before my eyes
For the first time I saw the work of heaven
In the line where the hills
had been married to the sky
And all around me
Every blade of singing grass
Was calling out your name
And that our love would always last
And inside every turning leaf
Is the pattern of an older tree
The shape of our future
The shape of all our history
And out of the confusion
Where the river meets the sea
Came things I'd never seen
I was brought to my senses
I was blind but now that I can see
Every signpost in nature
Said you belong to me.
| Poems Gathered Along the Way |
| San Francisco Weddings Ceremony Poems |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| ©1989-2011 Ceremony Way. All rights Reserved. |