Psalm 148

Praise God in the highest heavens;

            praise him beyond the stars.

Praise him, you bodhisattvas,

            and you angels burning with his love.

Praise him in the depths of matter,

            praise him in atomic space.

Praise him, you whirling electrons,

            you unimaginable quarks.

Praise him in lifeless galaxies;

            praise him from the pit of black holes.

Praise him, creatures on all planets,

            inconceivable forms of life.

Let them all praise the Unnamable,

            for he is their source, their home.

He make them in all their beauty

            and the laws by which they exist.

Praise God upon the earth,

            whales and all creatures of the sea,

fire, hail, snow, and frost,

            hurricanes fulfilling his command,

mountains and barren hills,

            fruit trees and cedar forests,

wild animals and tame,

            reptiles, insects, birds,

creatures invisible to the eye,

            and tiniest one-celled beings,

rich and poor, powerful

            and oppressed, dark-skinned and light-skinned,

men and women alike,

            old and young together.

Let them praise the Unnamable God,

            whose goodness is the breath of life,

who had made us in his own image,

            the light that fills heaven and earth.

--The Book of Psalms

Psalm 100

Sing to the Lord, all creatures!

            Worship him with your joy;

            praise him with the sound of your laughter.

Know that we all belong to him,

            that he is our source and our home.

Enter his light with thanksgiving;

            fill your hearts with his praise.

For his goodness is beyond comprehension,

            and his deep love endures forever.

--The Book of Psalms

Epithalamion

Long may this happy heaven-tied band

            Exercise its most holy art,

Keeping her heart within his hand,

            Keeping his hand upon her heart

                        Except from her eyes

                                    Feel he no charms;

                        Find she no joy

                                    But in his arms;

May each maintain a well-fledged nest

Of winged loves in either’s breast;

Be each of them a mutual sacrifice

                                    Of either’s eyes.

May their whole life a sweet song prove

            Set to two well-composed parts

By music’s noblest master, Love,

            Played on the strings of both their hearts;

                        Whose mutual sound

                                    May ever meet

                        In a just round

                                    Not short though sweet;

Long may heaven listen to the song

And think it short though it be long;

Oh, prove’t a well-set song indeed, which shows

                        Sweetest in the close.

--Richard Crashaw

From "Several Questions Answered"

What is it men in women do require?

The lineaments of Gratified Desire.

What is it women do in men require?

The lineaments of Gratified Desire.

William Blake

Variation On The Word Sleep

I would like to watch you sleeping.

I would like to watch you,

sleeping. I would like to sleep

with you, to enter

your sleep as its smooth dark wave

slides over my head

and walk with you through that lecent

wavering forest of bluegreen leaves

with its watery sun & three moons

towards the cave where you must descend,

towards your worst fear

I would like to give you the silver

branch, the small white flower, the one

word that will protect you

from the grief at the center

of your dream, from the grief

at the center. I would like to follow

you up the long stairway

again & become

the boat that would row you back

carefully, a flame

in two cupped hands

to where your body lies

beside me, and you enter

it as easily as breathing in

I would like to be the air

that inhabits you for a moment

only. I would like to be that unnoticed

& that necessary.

--Margaret Atwood

Sukey, You Shall Be My Wife

Sukey, you shall be my wife

And I will tell you why;

I have got a little pig,

And you have got a sty;

I have got a dun cow,

And you can make good cheese.

Sukey, will you marry me?

Say Yes, if you please.

--Anonymous 

Lavender's Blue, Dilly, Dilly, Lavender's Green

“Lavender’s blue, dilly, dilly, lavender’s green,

When I am King, dilly, dilly, you shall be Queen.”

“Who told yo so, dilly, dilly, who told you so?”

“‘Twas mine own heart, dilly, dilly, that told me so”

“Call up your men, dilly, dully, set them to work,

Some with a rake, dilly, dilly, some with a fork,

Some to make hay, dilly, dilly, some to thresh corn,

While you and I, dilly, dilly, keep ourselves warm.”

“If it should hap, dilly, dilly, if it should change,

We shall be gay, dilly, dilly, we shall both dance.

Lavender’s blue, dilly, dilly, lavender’s green,

You shall be King, dilly, dilly, when I am Queen.”

--Anonymous

From "Letters"

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.

--Rainer Maria Rilke

Turn Me Like A Waterwheel Turning A Millstone

Turn me like a waterwheel turning a millstone.

Plenty of water, Living Water.

Keep me in one place and scatter the love.

Leaf moves in a wind, straw drawn toward amber,

all parts of the world are in love,

but they do not tell their secrets: Cows grazing

on a sacramental table, ants whispering in Solomon’s ear.

Mountains mumbling an echo. Sky, calm.

If the sun were not in love, he would have no brightness,

the side of the hill no grass on it.

The ocean would come to rest somewhere.

Be a lover as they are, that you come to know

your Beloved. Be faithful that you may know

Faith. The other parts of the universe did not accept

the next responsibility of love as you can.

They were afraid they might make a mistake

with it, the inspired knowing

that springs from being in love.

--Rumi

My Heart Is Like A Singing Bird

My heart is like a singing bird

            Whose nest is in a watered shoot:

My heart is like an apple-tree

            Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;

My heart is like a rainbow shell

            That paddles in a halcyon sea;

My heart is gladder than all these

            Because my love is come to me.

Raise me a dais of silk and down;

            Hang it with vair and purple dyes;

Carve it in doves and pomegranates,

            And peacocks with a hundred eyes;

Work it in gold and silver grapes,

            In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;

Because the birthday of my life

            Is come, my love is come to me.

--Christina Rossetti

I Have Come Into My Garden

 

I have come into my garden,

My sister, my bride,

I have gathered the myrrh and spices,

I have eaten from the honeycomb,

I have drunk the milk and the wine.

Feast, friends, and drink

Till you are drunk with love!

-The Song of Songs

Wedding Song: Lullaby for Sleepy Lovers

Hail bride and bridegroom, children both of Jove,

With fruitful joys let Hera bless your love!

Let Venus furnish you with full desires,

Add vigor to your wills and fuel your fires!

Let Jove, and luck, augment your wealthy store,

Give much to you, and to your children more!

From generous loins a generous race will spring,

Each girl will be a queen, each boy a king.

So sleep if sleep you can, but while you rest,

Sleep close, with folded arms, and breast to breast.

Rise in the morn, but oh! before you rise,

Do not neglect your morning exercise!

Just as, when night and winter disappear,

The purple morning, rising with the year,

Salutes the spring, so you, with wond’ring eyes,

Should light the world and brighten all the skies!

-Theocritus

Shoshone Wedding Song

Bride:

“Not a spirit, not a bird
Made the lupine rustle.
That was my heart you heard
And the rustle of my hem
As I walked in the grasses.
That was my heart you heard
When you came to the willows.”

Groom:

“Not a spirit, not a bird,
That was my flute you heard
Last night by the river.
When you came with your wicker jar
Where the river tugs at the willows,
That was my flute you heard
Calling, Come to the willows.”

  --Mary Austin