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April 18, 2013 9:26 AM

I'm hosting a wedding reception for a very good friend, with an Earth Day theme. The wedding favors will be an embellished brown paper lunch bag containing a few earth-friendly items, and I need a sweet little poem to include.

The bags will have a pack of flower seeds, a birdseed ornament to hang outside, and a little box of candy. I want to add a note or maybe a hang-tag with a short poem. Something like this:

Feed the birds,
Plant some flowers,
Treat yourself with sweets,
And send positive energy to the new couple.

But obviously, I would like it to be better than that! The bottom of the card will be signed with the couple's name and date of their marriage, and I hope to print them off on my home office printer, probably on card stock. Thanks!

posted by raisingsand to Grab Bag (8 answers total)

Trees by Joyce Kilmer?
posted by Duffington at 9:30 AM on April 18, 2013

Love is kind, and feeds the birds in winter
Love is beautiful, and makes a garden brighter
Love is sweet, and for folk sweet, still sweeter
posted by greenish at 9:51 AM on April 18, 2013 [3 favorites]

A little something from Rumi, perhaps? The Springtime of Lovers has Come
posted by lakersfan1222 at 9:54 AM on April 18, 2013

This is nice:

The skies will not be darkened in that hour,
No sudden blight will fall on leaf or flower,
No single bird will hush its careless cry,
And you will hold my hands, and smile or sigh
Just as before.

(source: http://www.bartleby.com/248/625.html)
posted by jquinby at 9:58 AM on April 18, 2013

This isn't perhaps as on the nose as you're looking for, but it's very beautiful and thematically on point:

Love’s Philosophy
By Percy Bysshe Shelley

The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one spirit meet and mingle.
Why not I with thine?—

See the mountains kiss high heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth
And the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What is all this sweet work worth
If thou kiss not me?
posted by yoink at 10:06 AM on April 18, 2013

Best answer: The newly-wed couple you'd please
By helping the birds and the bees
For yourself there's a treat
Of candy so sweet
Please don't hang that in the trees!
posted by mikepop at 11:26 AM on April 18, 2013 [2 favorites]

Best answer: 1.
Nectar and seeds for the birds and bees,
a carpet of blossoms for the trees' wide feet,
and a panoply of tasty sweets to eat
to honor our friends' love, as a gift, enjoy these.

_______________________________
2.
Flowers to bloom with nectar sweet,
Seeds for squirrels and birds to eat,
and last but not least, a human treat
as we bid John and Jane a life of love that's complete.
posted by treehorn+bunny at 1:39 PM on April 18, 2013 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thank you so much! I can't decide which one I like the best, so I'm using a combination of the ones marked.
posted by raisingsand at 6:34 PM on April 19, 2013