Emergency wedding reading

May 26, 2017 6:11 AM

Ok! A good friend of mine just asked to me read a poem at her wedding, which is TOMORROW. I know there are dozens of wedding poem Asks and hundreds of wedding poem lists on the internet, but I have a special problem here: I was asked to read the poem in English, but none of the other guests are native English speakers.

I know she would be happy with anything, but I'd really love something that is comprehensible to people with high-school level English, so John Donne ("I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I/ Did, till we loved?") is right out.

The only two things I can find that might work are "Litany", by Billy Collins and "The Wine of Love" By James Thompson, which I really love, although it is so short,

Any suggestions for simple poems to read at weddings? Thanks!

posted by lollymccatburglar to Media & Arts (24 answers total)

When in doubt, for wedding readings in my book it's always Wendell Berry's Wild Rose:

Wendell Berry

The Wild Rose

Sometimes hidden from me
in daily custom and in trust,
so that I live by you unaware
as by the beating of my heart.

Suddenly you flare in my sight,
a wild rose blooming at the edge
of thicket, grace and light
where yesterday was only shade,

and once again I am blessed, choosing
again what I chose before.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 6:19 AM on May 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]
by e.e. cummings?
posted by speakeasy at 6:20 AM on May 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

can't stop this feeling
Deep inside of me
Girl, you just don't realize
What you do to me
When you hold me
In your arms so tight
You let me know
Everything's all right
I'm hooked on a feeling
I'm high on believing
That you're in love with me
Lips are sweet as candy
It's taste stays on my mind
Girl, you got me thirsty
For another cup of wine
Got a bug from you, girl
But I don't need no cure
I just stay affecting
If I can for sure
All the good love when we're all alone
Keep it up girl
Yeah, you turn me on
I'm hooked on a feeling
I'm high on believing
That you're in love with me
All the good love
When we're all alone
Keep it up girl
Yeah, you turn me on
I'm hooked on a feeling
I'm high on believing
That you're in love with me
posted by chasles at 6:23 AM on May 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

We had my husband's mother read "Union" by Robert Fulghum at our wedding and it was truly lovely. It wasn't excessively flowery or wordy. Just beautiful sentiment in simple clear language. Highly recommended.
posted by PuppetMcSockerson at 6:24 AM on May 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Also, maybe consider writing your own?
posted by PuppetMcSockerson at 6:28 AM on May 26, 2017

You could try Touched by an Angel by Maya Angelou. I went to a wedding where they read out the lyrics to I would walk 500 miles (minus the da da da da and echos), and it was surprisingly moving!
posted by Nilehorse at 6:56 AM on May 26, 2017

The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours.
The love that I have
Of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours.
A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause.
For the peace of my years
In the long green grass
Will be yours and yours and yours.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_That_I_Have
posted by Hogshead at 7:05 AM on May 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

i carry your heart with me, e.e. cummings.

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)
posted by gideonfrog at 7:37 AM on May 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Maybe this is too juvenile, but I'm guessing it would be 100% understandable, plus it's a favorite:

Hug O'War by Shel Silverstein

I will not play at tug o' war.
I'd rather play at hug o' war,
Where everyone hugs
Instead of tugs,
Where everyone giggles
And rolls on the rug,
Where everyone kisses,
And everyone grins,
And everyone cuddles,
And everyone wins.
posted by Mchelly at 7:39 AM on May 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Coming Home
by Mary Oliver

When we’re driving, in the dark,
on the long road
to Provincetown, which lies empty
for miles, when we’re weary,
when the buildings
and the scrub pines lose
their familiar look,
I imagine us rising
from the speeding car,
I imagine us seeing
everything from another place — the top
of one of the pale dunes
or the deep and nameless
fields of the sea —
and what we see is the world
that cannot cherish us
but which we cherish,
and what we see is our life
moving like that,
along the dark edges
of everything — the headlights
like lanterns
sweeping the blackness —
believing in a thousand
fragile and unprovable things,
looking out for sorrow,
slowing down for happiness,
making all the right turns
right down to the thumping
barriers to the sea,
the swirling waves,
the narrow streets, the houses,
the past, the future,
the doorway that belongs
to you and me.
posted by lydhre at 7:40 AM on May 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

I also love this one, which is a bit trickier but has very few possibly-unfamiliar words:

Scaffolding by Seamus Heaney

Masons, when they start upon a building,
Are careful to test out the scaffolding;

Make sure that planks won’t slip at busy points,
Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints.

And yet all this comes down when the job’s done
Showing off walls of sure and solid stone.

So if, my dear, there sometimes seem to be
Old bridges breaking between you and me

Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall
Confident that we have built our wall.
posted by Mchelly at 7:42 AM on May 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Eric Freid has some beautiful love poems that are short, honest, and written in simple English. I read one at a friend's wedding and they all adored it.
posted by hapaxes.legomenon at 7:52 AM on May 26, 2017

Love Excerpt from Kahlil Gibran

Let these be your desires:
To wake at dawn with a winged heart
and give thanks for another day of loving;

To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;

And then to sleep with a prayer for the
beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

— Kahlil Gibran, Adapted from The Prophet
posted by Hanuman1960 at 8:38 AM on May 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

We also used E. E. Cummings:

love is a place
& through this place of
love move
(with brightness of peace)
all places

yes is a world
& in this world of
yes live
(skilfully curled)
all worlds
posted by wintersweet at 9:18 AM on May 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

I like a modified version of Kahlil Gibran

But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

Or you could browse these:
https://apracticalwedding.com/sample-wedding-readings/
posted by ldthomps at 9:43 AM on May 26, 2017

I read Tin Wedding Whistle at my brother's wedding.
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 10:09 AM on May 26, 2017

Here are the two pieces that were read (by our officiant, not a guest) at our wedding; I'm pretty sure I found both on AskMefi. (The first is an edited version of "The Art of Marriage"; I have no idea what the other one is.)

--The Opening Bit--
Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens.
A good marriage must be created.
In the art of marriage, the little things are the big things.
It is never being too old to hold hands.
It is remembering to say “I love you” at least once each day.
It is never going to sleep angry.
It is at no time taking the other for granted.
It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives.
It is standing together facing the world.
It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family.
It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy.
It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways.
It is not looking for perfection in each other.
It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding, and a sense of humor.
It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.
It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow.
It is finding room for the things of the spirit.
It is a common search for the good and the beautiful.
It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner.
It is discovering what marriage can be at its best.

--The Rings Bit--
This is the point in the ceremony where we usually talk about the wedding bands being a perfect circle, with no beginning and no end, blah blah blah. But rings do have a beginning. Rock and bone are dug up from the earth. Metal is liquefied in a furnace at a thousand degrees, then molded, cooled, and painstakingly polished. Something beautiful is made from raw elements. Love is like that. It’s hot, dirty work. It comes from humble beginnings, made by imperfect beings. It’s the process of making something amazing where there was once nothing at all.
posted by okayokayigive at 10:36 AM on May 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

I don't know if these will work for what you need, but at my recent wedding, the following poems were read:

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/having-coke-you

Having a Coke with You (Frank O’Hara, 1926 - 1966)

Having a Coke with You

is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne
or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona
partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian
partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt
partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches
partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary
it is hard to believe when I’m with you that there can be anything as still
as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it
in the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and forth
between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles

and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint
you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them
I look
at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world
except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick
which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together for the first time
and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism
just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or
at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me
and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them
when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank
or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully
as the horse
it seems they were all cheated of some marvelous experience
which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I’m telling you about it

http://www.notintentonarriving.com/2012/09/poem-for-shelbys-wedding-iv-blessing.html?m=1
A Blessing for Wedding (Jane Hirshfield)

Today when persimmons ripen
Today when fox-kits come out of their den into snow
Today when the spotted egg releases its wren song
Today when the maple sets down its red leaves
Today when windows keep their promise to open
Today when fire keeps its promise to warm
Today when someone you love has died
or someone you never met has died
Today when someone you love has been born
or someone you will not meet has been born
Today when rain leaps to the waiting of roots in their dryness
Today when starlight bends to the roofs of the hungry and tired
Today when someone sits long inside his last sorrow
Today when someone steps into the heat of her first embrace
Today, let this light bless you
With these friends let it bless you
With snow-scent and lavender bless you
Let the vow of this day keep itself wildly and wholly
Spoken and silent, surprise you inside your ears
Sleeping and waking, unfold itself inside your eyes
Let its fierceness and tenderness hold you
Let its vastness be undisguised in all your days

I also seriously considered this one:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/49226
Cave Dwellers Related Poem Content Details
BY A. POULIN, JR.
I’ve carved a cave in the mountainside.
I’ve drilled for water, stocked provisions
to last a lifetime. The walls are smooth.
We can live here, love, safe from elements.
We’ll invent another love that can’t destroy.
We’ll make exquisite reproductions of our
selves, immortal on these walls.

And when
this sea that can’t support us is burned clean,
when the first new creatures crawl from it,
gasping for water, air, more wondrous and more
wild than earth’s first couple, they shall see
there were two before them: you and me.

But instead we had a lovely, lovely reading of that passage on the origins of love from Plato's Symposium. It was just glorious.
posted by pleasant_confusion at 11:17 AM on May 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

The Tin Wedding Whistle by Ogden Nash is lovely and with simple couplets should be easy to follow

TIN WEDDING WHISTLE
By Ogden Nash

Though you know it anyhow
Listen to me, darling, now,
Proving what I need not prove
How I know I love you, love.

Near and far, near and far,
I am happy where you are;

Likewise I have never larnt
How to be it where you aren't.

Far and wide, far and wide,
I can walk with you beside;

Furthermore, I tell you what,
I sit and sulk where you are not.

Visitors remark my frown
Where you're upstairs and I am down,

Yes, and I'm afraid I pout
When I'm indoors and you are out;

But how contentedly I view
Any room containing you.

In fact I care not where you be,
Just as long as it's with me.

In all your absences I glimpse
Fire and flood and trolls and imps.

Is your train a minute slothful?
I goad the stationmaster wrothful.

When with friends to bridge you drive
I never know if you're alive,

And when you linger late in shops
I long to telephone the cops.

Yet how worth the waiting for,
To see you coming through the door.

Somehow, I can be complacent
Never but with you adjacent.

Near and far, near and far,
I am happy where you are;

Likewise I have never larnt
How to be it where you aren't.

Then grudge me not my fond endeavor,
To hold you in my sight forever;

Let none, not even you, disparage
Such a valid reason for a marriage.
posted by brookeb at 11:36 AM on May 26, 2017

This Marriage by Rumi is nice, short and simple:

May these vows and this marriage be blessed.
May it be sweet milk,
this marriage, like wine and halvah.
May this marriage offer fruit and shade
like the date palm.
May this marriage be full of laughter,
our every day a day in paradise.
May this marriage be a sign of compassion,
a seal of happiness here and hereafter.
May this marriage have a fair face and a good name,
an omen as welcome as the moon in a clear blue sky.
I am out of words to describe
how spirit mingles in this marriage.

posted by Pallas Athena at 1:26 PM on May 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

(Another translation of the Rumi poem here)
posted by Pallas Athena at 1:28 PM on May 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

We had a reading from a kids book called I Like You by Sandol Stoddard Warburg. Super simple language.

This is just an excerpt from a couple parts of the book:

I like you because
I don’t know why
but Everything that happens is nicer with you.
I can’t remember when I didn’t like you.
It must have been lonesome then.
I like you because because because
I forget why I like you, but I do.
So many reasons.
On the 4th of July
I like you because it’s the 4th of July. On the fifth of July,
I like you too.

Even if it was the 999th of July,
Even if it was August,
Even if it was way down at the bottom of November,
Even if it was no place particular in January,
I would go on choosing you.
And you would go on choosing me.
Over and over again.
That’s how it would happen every time.
I don’t know why.
I guess I don’t know why I really like you.
Why do I like you.
I guess I just like you.
I guess I just like you.
because I like you.
posted by root of the root at 5:51 PM on May 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Invitation to Love
by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Come when the nights are bright with stars
Or come when the moon is mellow;
Come when the sun his golden bars
Drops on the hay-field yellow.
Come in the twilight soft and gray,
Come in the night or come in the day,
Come, O love, whene’er you may,
And you are welcome, welcome.

You are sweet, O Love, dear Love,
You are soft as the nesting dove.
Come to my heart and bring it to rest
As the bird flies home to its welcome nest.

Come when my heart is full of grief
Or when my heart is merry;
Come with the falling of the leaf
Or with the redd’ning cherry.
Come when the year’s first blossom blows,
Come when the summer gleams and glows,
Come with the winter’s drifting snows,
And you are welcome, welcome.
posted by superfish at 1:05 AM on May 27, 2017

Probably too late, but for others who come across this Ask: one of the readings at my wedding was John Ciardi's "Most Like an Arch This Marriage."
posted by brianogilvie at 1:50 PM on May 27, 2017