Wintu Song

Where will you and I sleep?
At the down-turned jagged rim of the sky
You and I will sleep.
You and I will sleep together.

   --from the translation of Dorothy Demetracopoulou
     (adapted by Robert Hass)

The Rewaking

Sooner or later
we must come to the end
of striving

to re-establish
the image the image of
the rose

but not yet
you say extending the
time indefinitely

by
your love until a whole
spring

rekindle
the violet to the very
lady's-slipper

and so by
your love the very sun
itself is revived.

   --William Carlos Williams

Marriage

So different, this man
And this woman:
A stream flowing
In a field.

   --William Carlos Williams

A Reading by Robert Louis Stevenson

I will make you brooches and toys for your delight,
Of bird-song at morning and star-shine at night.
I will build a palace fit for you and me,
Of green days in forests and blue days at sea.

I will make my kitchen, and you shall keep your room
Where white flows the river and bright blos the broom,
And you shall wash your linen and keep your body white
In rainfall at morning and dewfall at night.

And this shall be for music when no one else is near,
The fine song for singing, the rare song to hear!
That only I remember, that only you admire,
Of the broad road that stretches and the roadside fire.

   --Robert Louis Stevenson

When Someone Listens to You Deeply

When someone deeply listens to you
it is like holding out a dented cup
you've had since childhood
and watching it fill up with
cold, fresh water.
When it balances on top of the brim,
you are understood.
When it overflows and touches your skin,
you are loved.

When someone deeply listens to you,
the room where you stay
starts a new life
and the place where you wrote
your first poem
begins to glow in your mind's eye.
It is as if gold has been discovered!

When someone deeply listens to you,
your bare feet are on the earth
and a beloved land that seem distant
is now at home within you.

  --John Fox
     in Finding What you Didn't Lose

A Summer Love Poem

clouds float by on a summer sky
i hop scotch over you
rainbows arch from ground to gold
i climb over to you
thunder grumbles
lightning tumbles and i bounced over to you
sun beams back and catches me
smiling over you

   --Nikki Giovanni

Come Rain or Come Shine

I'm gonna love you
Like nobodys loved you,
come rain or come shine.
High as a mountain
And deep as a river,
come rain or come shine.

I guess when you met me
It was just one of those things,
But don't ever bet me,
'Cause I'm gonna be true if you let me.

You're gonna love me
Like nobody's loved me,
Come rain or come shine.
Happy together,
Unhappy together
And won't it be fine.

Days may be cloudy or sunny,
We're in or we're out of the money,
But I'm with you always,
I'm with you rain or shine!

   --Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen

It is the true season
of Love
when we know that
we alone can love,
that no one could ever
have loved before us
and that no one
will ever Love
in the same way
after us.

   --Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Reprise

Geniuses from countless nations
Have told their love for generations
Till their memorable phrases
Are common as goldenrod or daises.
Their girls have glimmered like the moon,
Or shimmered like the summer noon
Stood like lily, fled like faun,
Now the sunset, now the dawn,
Here the princess in the tower
There the sweet forbidden flower
Darling, when I look at you
Every aged phrase is new,
And there are moments when it seems
I've married on of Shakespeare's dreams.

  --Ogden Nash

From every human being there rises a light that reaches straight to heaven.  And when two souls that are destined to be together find each other, their streams of light flow together, and a single brighter light goes forth from their united being.

  --Baal Shem Tov

Cherish Every Moment

Today is the beginning of a dream.
A day where two souls are woven together.
Cherish every moment that life offers.
And celebrate every small pleasure.
Express your love at every chance
And allow it to unfold gracefully.
Show your devotion and dedicate your lives
to the enrichment of each other.
Strive always for honesty and integrity.
Build upon your marriage daily.
And seek to understand each other.
But above all this......
Draw upon the love you feel today
and forever etch it in your hearts.

  --Leslie Nielson