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